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 Robinson Crusoe 



                          Daniel Defoe 


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                                                                Robinson Crusoe 



                                                  Table of Contents 



Robinson Crusoe.................................................................................................................................................1 

           Daniel Defoe............................................................................................................................................1 

           CHAPTER I - START IN LIFE.............................................................................................................1 

           CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE...........................................................................................7 

           CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND.....................................................................13 

           CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE  ISLAND..........................................................................22 

           CHAPTER V - BUILDS A HOUSE  - THE  JOURNAL...................................................................32 

           CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN...................................................................39 

           CHAPTER VII - AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE..........................................................................46 

           CHAPTER VIII - SURVEYS HIS POSITION....................................................................................50 

           CHAPTER IX - A BOAT.....................................................................................................................55 

           CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS.........................................................................................................62 

           CHAPTER XI - FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S  FOOT ON THE SAND................................................68 

           CHAPTER XII - A CAVE RETREAT.................................................................................................74 

           CHAPTER XIII - WRECK OF A SPANISH  SHIP............................................................................82 

           CHAPTER XIV - A DREAM REALISED..........................................................................................87 

           CHAPTER XV - FRIDAY'S EDUCATION........................................................................................94 

           CHAPTER XVI - RESCUE OF PRISONERS  FROM CANNIBALS..............................................101 

           CHAPTER XVII - VISIT OF MUTINEERS.....................................................................................109 

           CHAPTER XVIII - THE SHIP RECOVERED..................................................................................116 

           CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO ENGLAND....................................................................................123 

           CHAPTER XX - FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY  AND A BEAR......................................................130 



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                                   Robinson Crusoe 



                                            Daniel Defoe 



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http://www.blackmask.com 



 
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                                                Robinson Crusoe 



house-education and a country free school  generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be 

satisfied  with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so  strongly against the will, nay, the 

commands of my father, and  against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other  friends, that 

there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity  of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which 

was to  befall  me. 



My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent  counsel against what he foresaw was my 

design.  He called me one  morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and  expostulated 

very warmly with me upon this subject.  He asked me  what  reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I 

had for  leaving  father's house and my native country, where I might be well  introduced, and had a prospect of 

raising my fortune by application  and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure.  He told me it was  men of 

desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior  fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon 

adventures, to rise by  enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature  out of the common 

road; that these things were all either too far  above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle 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 and  hardships, the labour  and 

sufferings of the mechanic part of  mankind, and not embarrassed  with the pride, luxury, ambition, and  envy 

of the upper part of  mankind.  He told me I might judge of the  happiness of this state by  this one thing - viz. 

that this was the  state of life which all other  people envied; that kings have  frequently lamented the miserable 

consequence of being born to  great things, and wished they had been  placed in the middle of the  two 

extremes, between the mean and the  great; that the wise man  gave his testimony to this, as the standard  of 

felicity, when he  prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. 



He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities  of life were shared among the upper and 

lower part of mankind, but  that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not  exposed  to so many 

vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of  mankind; nay,  they were not subjected to so many distempers and 

uneasinesses, either  of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious  living, luxury, and  extravagances on the 

one hand, or by hard  labour, want of necessaries,  and mean or insufficient diet on the  other hand, bring 

distemper upon  themselves by the natural  consequences of their way of living; that  the middle station of  life 

was calculated for all kind of virtue and  all kind of  enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of 

a  middle  fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health,  society,  all agreeable diversions, and all 

desirable pleasures, were  the  blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men  went silently 

and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out  of  it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or 

of the  head, not  sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed  with perplexed  circumstances, which rob 

the soul of peace and the  body of rest, nor  enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret  burning lust of 

ambition for great things; but, in easy  circumstances, sliding gently  through the world, and sensibly  tasting 

the sweets of living, without  the bitter; feeling that they  are happy, and learning by every day's  experience to 

know it more  sensibly, 



After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate  manner, not to play the young man, nor to 

precipitate myself into  miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in,  seemed  to have provided 

against; that I was under no necessity of  seeking my  bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to 

enter me fairly  into the station of life which he had just been  recommending to me;  and that if I was not very 

easy and happy in  the world, it must be my  mere fate or fault that must hinder it;  and that he should have 

nothing to answer for, having thus  discharged his duty in warning me  against measures which he knew  would 

be to my hurt; in a word, that as  he would do very kind  things for me if I would stay and settle at home  as he 

directed, so  he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as  to give me any  encouragement to go 

away; and to close all, he told me  I had my  elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same 

earnest  persuasions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars,  but  could not prevail, his young 

desires prompting him to run into the  army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to 

pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take  this foolish step, God would not bless me, 



Robinson Crusoe                                                                                                   2 


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and I should have  leisure  hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when  there  might be none to 

assist in my recovery. 



I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly  prophetic, 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, especially when he 

spoke of my brother who was killed:  and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to 

assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse, and  told  me his heart was so full he could say no 

more to me. 



I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who  could be otherwise? and I resolved not to think 

of going abroad any  more, but to settle at home according to my father's desire.  But  alas! a few days wore it 

all off; and, in short, to prevent any of  my  father's further importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved  to run 

quite away from him.  However, I did not act quite so  hastily as the  first heat of my resolution prompted; but I 

took my  mother at a time  when I thought her a little more pleasant than  ordinary, and told her  that my 

thoughts were so entirely bent upon  seeing the world that I  should never settle to anything with  resolution 

enough to go through  with it, and my father had better  give me his consent than force me to  go without it; 

that I was now  eighteen years old, which was too late  to go apprentice to a trade  or clerk to an attorney; that I 

was sure  if I did I should never  serve out my time, but I should certainly run  away from my master  before my 

time was out, and go to sea; and if she  would speak to my  father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came 

home again, and  did not like it, I would go no more; and I would  promise, by a  double diligence, to recover 

the time that I had lost. 



This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she knew it  would be to no purpose to speak to my 

father upon any such subject;  that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to  anything so 

much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could  think  of any such thing after the discourse I had had 

with my  father, and  such kind and 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 might depend I should never have their  consent 

to it; that for  her part she would not have so much hand in  my destruction; and I  should never have it to say 

that my mother  was willing when my father  was not. 



Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard  afterwards that 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 boy might be 

happy if he would stay at home; but if he  goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was 

born:  I can give no consent to it." 



It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose,  though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf 

to all  proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulated with  my father and mother about their 

being so positively determined  against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to.  But being  one  day at 

Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of  making  an elopement at that time; but, I say, being 

there, and one  of my  companions being about to sail to London in his father's  ship, and  prompting me to go 

with them with the common allurement  of seafaring  men, that it should cost me nothing for my passage, I 

consulted  neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as sent  them word of  it; but leaving them to hear 

of it as they might,  without asking God's  blessing or my father's, without any  consideration of circumstances 

or  consequences, and in an ill hour,  God knows, on the 1st of September  1651, I went on board a ship  bound 

for London.  Never any young  adventurer's misfortunes, I  believe, began sooner, or continued longer  than 

mine.  The ship was  no sooner out of the Humber than the wind  began to blow and the sea  to rise in a most 

frightful manner; and, as  I had never been at sea  before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body  and terrified in 

mind.  I began now seriously to reflect upon what I  had done, and  how justly I was overtaken by the judgment 

of Heaven for  my wicked  leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty.  All the  good  counsels of my 

parents, my father'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 to which it has since,  reproached me with the contempt of 



Robinson Crusoe                                                                                                       3 


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advice, and the breach of my  duty  to God and my father. 



All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high,  though nothing like what I have seen many 

times since; no, nor what  I  saw a few days after; but it was enough to 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 it did, in the trough or  hollow of the sea, we  should never rise 

more; in this agony of  mind, I made many vows and  resolutions that if it would please God  to spare my life in 

this one  voyage, if ever I got once my foot  upon dry land again, I would go  directly home to my father, and 

never set it into a ship again while I  lived; that I would take his  advice, and never run myself into such 

miseries as these any more.  Now I saw plainly the goodness of his  observations about the middle  station of 

life, how easy, how  comfortably he had lived all his  days, and never had been exposed to  tempests at sea or 

troubles on  shore; and I resolved that I would,  like a true repenting prodigal,  go home to my father. 



These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm  lasted, and indeed some time after; but the 

next day the wind was  abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to  it;  however, I was very 

grave for all that day, being also a little  sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind  was 

quite over, and a charming fine evening followed; the sun went  down perfectly clear, and rose so the next 

morning; and having  little  or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the  sight was,  as I thought, 

the most delightful that ever I saw. 



I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but  very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the 

sea that was so rough  and  terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant  in so  little a time after. 

And now, lest my good resolutions  should  continue, my companion, who had enticed me away, comes to  me; 

"Well,  Bob," says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, "how do  you do after it?  I warrant you were frighted, 

wer'n't you, last  night, when it blew  but a capful of wind?"  "A capful d'you call  it?" said I; "'twas a  terrible 

storm."  "A storm, you fool you,"  replies he; "do you call  that a storm? 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 a fresh-water 

sailor, Bob.  Come, let us make a bowl of     punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye  see what charming weather 'tis 

now?"  To make short this sad part  of my story, we went the way of all  sailors; the punch was made and  I was 

made half drunk with it: and in  that one night's wickedness I  drowned all my repentance, all my  reflections 

upon my past conduct,  all my resolutions for the future.  In a word, as the sea was  returned to its smoothness 

of surface and   settled calmness by the  abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my  thoughts being over, my 

fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up  by the sea being  forgotten, and the current of my former 

desires  returned, I  entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my  distress.  I found, indeed, some 

intervals of reflection; and the  serious  thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes;  but  I 

shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a  distemper, and applying myself to drinking 

and company, soon  mastered  the return of those fits - for so I called them; and I had  in five or  six days got as 

complete a victory over conscience as  any young fellow  that resolved not to be troubled with it could  desire. 

But I was to  have another trial for it still; and  Providence, as in such cases  generally it does, resolved to leave 

me entirely 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 wretch among us would confess both  the danger and the  mercy of. 



The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads; the  wind having been contrary and the 

weather calm, we had made but  little way since the storm.  Here we were obliged to come to an  anchor, and 

here we lay, the wind continuing contrary - viz. at  south-west - for seven or eight days, during which time a 

great  many  ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as the common  harbour  where the ships might 

wait for a wind for the river. 



We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it  up the river, but that the wind blew too 

fresh, and after we had  lain  four or five days, blew very hard.  However, the Roads being  reckoned  as good as 

a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground-  tackle very  strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in 



Robinson Crusoe                                                                                                      4 


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the least  apprehensive of  danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after  the manner of the  sea; but the 

eighth day, in the morning, the wind  increased, and we  had all hands at work to strike our topmasts, and  make 

everything snug  and close, that the ship might ride as easy as  possible.  By noon the  sea went very high 

indeed, and our ship rode  forecastle in, shipped  several seas, and we thought once or twice  our anchor had 

come home;  upon which our master ordered out the  sheet-anchor, so that we rode  with two anchors ahead, 

and the  cables veered out to the bitter end. 



By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to  see terror and amazement in the faces even of 

the seamen  themselves.  The master, though vigilant in the business of  preserving the ship,  yet as he went in 

and out of his cabin by me,  I could hear him softly  to himself say, 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 was stupid, lying still in  my 

cabin, which was in the  steerage, and cannot describe my temper:  I could ill resume the first  penitence which 

I had so apparently  trampled upon and hardened myself  against: I thought the bitterness  of death had been 

past, and that  this would be nothing like the  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 out of my cabin and looked out; but  such a 

dismal sight I never  saw: the sea ran mountains high, and broke  upon us every three or  four minutes; when I 

could look about, I could  see nothing but  distress round us; two ships that rode near us, we  found, had cut 

their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men  cried out  that a ship which rode about a mile ahead 

of us was  foundered.  Two  more ships, being driven from their anchors, were run  out of the  Roads to sea, at 

all adventures, and that with not a mast  standing.  The light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in 

the  sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running  away with only their spritsail out 

before the wind. 



Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our  ship to let them cut away the fore-mast, 

which he was very  unwilling  to do; but the boatswain protesting to him that if he did  not the ship  would 

founder, he consented; and when they had cut  away the fore-mast,  the main-mast stood so loose, and shook 

the  ship so much, they were  obliged to cut that away also, and make a  clear deck. 



Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who  was but a young sailor, and who had been in 

such a fright before at  but a little.  But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I  had about me at that time, 

I was in tenfold more horror of mind  upon  account of my former convictions, and the having returned from 

them to  the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was  at death  itself; and these, added to the terror 

of the storm, put  me into such  a condition that I can by no words describe it.  But  the worst was not  come yet; 

the storm continued with such fury that  the seamen  themselves acknowledged they had never seen a worse. 

We  had a good  ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea,  so that the  seamen every now and then 

cried out she would founder.  It was my  advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they  meant by 

FOUNDER till I inquired.  However, the storm was so  violent that I  saw, what is not often seen, the master, 

the  boatswain, and some  others more sensible than the rest, at their  prayers, and expecting  every moment 

when the ship would go to the  bottom.  In the middle of  the night, and under all the rest of our  distresses, one 

of the men  that had been down to see cried out we  had sprung a leak; another said  there was four feet water in 

the  hold.  Then all hands were called to  the pump.  At that word, my  heart, as I thought, died within me: and I 

fell backwards upon the  side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin.  However, the men  roused me, and told me 

that I, that was able to do  nothing before,  was as well able to pump as another; at which I  stirred up and went 

to the pump, and worked very heartily.  While this  was doing the  master, seeing some light colliers, who, not 

able to  ride out the  storm were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would  come near  us, ordered to fire a 

gun as a signal of distress.  I, who  knew  nothing what they meant, thought the ship had broken, or some 

dreadful thing happened.  In a word, I was so surprised that I fell  down in a swoon.  As this was a time when 

everybody had his own  life  to think of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but  another  man 

stepped up to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his  foot, let  me lie, thinking I had been dead; and it was 

a great  while before I  came to myself. 



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We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent  that the ship would founder; and though 

the storm began to abate a  little, yet it was not possible she could swim till we might run  into  any port; so the 

master continued firing guns for help; and a  light  ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat  out 

to help  us.  It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near  us; but it was  impossible for us to get on board, 

or for the boat  to lie near the  ship's side, till at last the men rowing very  heartily, and venturing  their lives to 

save ours, our men cast them     a rope over the stern with  a buoy to it, and then veered it out a  great length, 

which they, after  much labour and hazard, took hold  of, and we hauled them close under  our stern, and got all 

into  their boat.  It was to no purpose for them  or us, after we were in  the boat, to think of reaching their own 

ship;  so all agreed to let  her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore  as much as we  could; and our master 

promised them, that if the boat  was staved  upon shore, he would make it good to their master: so  partly 

rowing  and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward,  sloping  towards the shore almost as far as 

Winterton Ness. 



We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship  till we saw her sink, and then I understood 

for the first time what  was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.  I must acknowledge I  had  hardly eyes to 

look up when the seamen told me she was sinking;  for  from the moment that they rather put me into the boat 

than that  I  might be said to go in, my heart was, as it were, dead within me,  partly with fright, partly with 

horror of mind, and the thoughts of  what was yet before me. 



While we were in this condition - the men yet labouring at the oar  to bring the boat near the shore - we could 

see (when, our boat  mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore) a great many  people running along 

the strand to assist us when we should come  near; but we made but slow way towards the shore; nor were we 

able  to  reach the shore till, being past the lighthouse at Winterton,  the  shore falls off to the westward towards 

Cromer, and so the land  broke  off a little the violence of the wind.  Here we got in, and  though not  without 

much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and  walked afterwards  on foot to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate 

men,  we were used with  great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the  town, who assigned  us good 

quarters, as by particular merchants and  owners of ships, and  had money given us sufficient to carry 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, I had been happy, and my father, as 

in our blessed Saviour's  parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the  ship  I went away in 

was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great  while  before he had any assurances that I was not drowned. 



But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing  could resist; and though I had several times 

loud calls from my  reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power  to do it.  I know 

not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is  a  secret overruling decree, 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 eyes open. 

Certainly, nothing  but some such decreed  unavoidable misery, which it was impossible  for me to escape, 

could  have pushed me forward against the calm  reasonings and persuasions of  my most retired thoughts, and 

against  two such visible instructions as  I had met with in my first  attempt. 



My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the  master's son, was now less forward than 

I.  The first time he spoke  to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three  days, for we were 

separated in the town to several quarters; I say,  the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered; and, 

looking very melancholy, and shaking his head, he 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 further abroad, 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 ought to take 

this for a plain and  visible token that you are not to be a  seafaring man."  "Why, sir,"  said I, "will you go to 

sea no more?"  "That is another case," said he;  "it is my calling, and therefore  my duty; but as you made this 

voyage  on trial, you see what a taste  Heaven has given you of what you are to  expect if you persist.  Perhaps 

this has all befallen us on your  account, like Jonah in the  ship of Tarshish.  Pray," continues he,  "what are you; 



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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 

out into a  strange kind of passion:  "What had I done," says he, "that such an  unhappy wretch should  come 

into my ship?  I would not set my foot in  the 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 the sense of  his loss, and was farther 

than he could have authority  to go.  However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me  to  go 

back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin, telling  me I might see 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 

meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments,  till your father's words are fulfilled upon you." 



We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him  no more; which way he went I knew not. 

As for me, having some  money  in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as  well as on  the road, 

had many struggles with myself what course of  life I should  take, and whether I should go home or to sea. 



As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my  thoughts, and it immediately occurred 

to me how I should be laughed  at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my  father  and 

mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have  since  often observed, how incongruous and 

irrational the common  temper of  mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which  ought to guide  them in 

such cases - viz. that they are not ashamed  to sin, and yet  are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action 

for which they ought  justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed  of the returning, which  only can make them 

be esteemed wise men. 



In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain  what measures to take, and what course of life 

to lead.  An  irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed  away  a while, the remembrance of 

the distress I had been in wore  off, and  as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires to  return wore  off 

with it, till at last I quite laid aside the  thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. 



                             CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE 



THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my father's  house - which hurried me into the wild 

and indigested notion of  raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly  upon me as to 

make me deaf to all good advice, and to the  entreaties  and even the commands of my father - I say, the same 

influence,  whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all  enterprises to  my view; and I went on board 

a vessel bound to the  coast of Africa;  or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to  Guinea. 



It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not  ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might 

indeed have worked a  little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have  learnt the duty and office 

of a fore-mast man, and in time might  have  qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a  master.  But 

as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I  did here; for  having money in my pocket and good 

clothes upon my  back, I would  always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and  so I neither had  any 

business in the ship, nor learned to 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 misguided  young fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to  lay  some snare for them 

very early; but it was not so with me.  I  first  got acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the 

coast of  Guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was  resolved to  go again.  This captain taking 

a fancy to my  conversation, which was  not at all disagreeable at that time,  hearing me say I had a mind to  see 

the world, told me if I would go  the voyage with him I should be  at no expense; I should be his  messmate and 

his companion; and if I  could carry anything with me,  I should have all the advantage of it  that the trade 

would admit;  and perhaps I might meet with some  encouragement. 



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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with  this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing 

man, I went the  voyage  with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by  the  disinterested honesty 

of my friend the captain, I increased  very  considerably; for I carried about 40 pounds in such toys and  trifles 

as the captain directed me to buy.  These 40 pounds I had  mustered  together by the assistance of some of my 

relations whom I  corresponded  with; and who, I believe, got my father, or at least  my mother, to  contribute so 

much as that to my first adventure. 



This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my  adventures, which I owe to the integrity 

and honesty of my friend  the  captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the  mathematics and 

the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an  account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, 

to  understand some things that were needful to be understood by a  sailor;  for, as he took 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 

home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust  for my adventure,  which yielded me in London, at my return, 

almost  300 pounds; and this  filled me with those aspiring thoughts which  have since so completed  my ruin. 



Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,  that I was continually sick, being thrown into 

a violent calenture  by  the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being  upon  the coast, from 

latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line  itself. 



I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great  misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I 

resolved to go the same  voyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was  his  mate in the 

former voyage, and had now got the command of the  ship.  This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man 

made; for  though I did  not carry quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so  that I had 200  pounds left, 

which I had lodged with my friend's  widow, who was very  just to me, yet I fell into terrible  misfortunes.  The 

first was this: our ship making her course  towards the Canary Islands, or rather  between those islands and the 

African shore, was surprised in the grey  of the morning by a  Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us 

with  all the sail she  could make.  We crowded also as much canvas as our  yards would  spread, or our masts 

carry, to get clear; but finding the  pirate  gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few  hours, 

we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the  rogue  eighteen.  About three in the afternoon he 

came up with us, and  bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of  athwart  our stern, as he 

intended, we brought eight of our guns to     bear on  that side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which made 

him sheer  off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in also  his small  shot from near two hundred men 

which he had on board.  However, we had  not a man touched, all our men keeping close.  He  prepared to 

attack  us again, and we to defend ourselves.  But  laying us on board the next  time upon our other quarter, he 

entered  sixty men upon our decks, who  immediately fell to cutting and  hacking the 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 being disabled, and three of  our men killed, 

and  eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were  carried all  prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to 

the Moors. 



The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I  apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the 

emperor's  court,  as the rest of our men 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.  At this surprising change of my 

circumstances,  from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was  perfectly overwhelmed; and  now I looked back 

upon my father's  prophetic discourse to me, that I  should be miserable and have none  to relieve me, which I 

thought was  now so effectually brought to  pass that I could not be worse; for now  the hand of Heaven had 

overtaken me, and I was undone without  redemption; but, alas! this  was but a taste of the misery I was to go 

through, as will appear  in the sequel of this story. 



As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I  was in hopes that he would take me with 

him when he went to sea  again, believing that it would some time or other be his fate to be  taken by a Spanish 



CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE                                                                                      8 


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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



or Portugal man-of-war; and that then I should  be  set at liberty.  But this hope of mine was soon taken away; 

for  when  he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little  garden,  and do the common drudgery of 

slaves about his house; and  when he came  home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in  the cabin to 

look  after the ship. 



Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might  take to effect it, but found no way that had 

the least probability  in  it; nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational;  for I  had nobody to 

communicate it to that would embark with me -  no  fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman 

there but  myself;  so that for two years, though I often pleased myself with  the  imagination, yet I never had 

the least encouraging prospect of  putting  it in practice. 



After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which  put the 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 or twice a week, sometimes oftener 

if the weather  was fair, to take the ship's pinnace and go out into the road a-  fishing; and as he always took 

me and young Maresco with him to row  the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very dexterous in 

catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a  Moor,  one of his kinsmen, and the youth - 

the Maresco, as they  called him -  to catch a dish of fish for him. 



It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fog  rose so thick that, though we were not 

half a league from the  shore,  we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which  way, we  laboured 

all day, and all the next night; and when the  morning came we  found we had pulled off to sea instead of 

pulling  in for the shore;  and that we were at least two leagues from the  shore.  However, we got  well in again, 

though with a great deal of  labour and some danger; for  the wind began to blow pretty fresh in  the morning; 

but we were all  very hungry. 



But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care  of himself for the future; and having lying 

by him the longboat of  our English ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-  fishing any more 

without a compass and some provision; so he  ordered  the carpenter of his ship, who also was an English 

slave,  to build a  little state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-  boat, like  that of a barge, with a place 

to stand behind it to  steer, and haul  home the main-sheet; the room before for a hand or  two to stand and 

work the sails.  She sailed with what we call a  shoulder-of-mutton  sail; and the boom jibed over the top of 

the  cabin, which lay very  snug and low, and had in it room for him to  lie, with a slave or two,  and a table to 

eat on, with some small  lockers to put in some bottles  of such liquor as he thought fit to  drink; and his bread, 

rice, and  coffee. 



We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was most  dexterous to catch fish for him, he never 

went without me.  It  happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for  pleasure or for fish, with 

two or three Moors of some distinction  in  that place, and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and  had, 

therefore, sent on board the boat overnight a larger store of  provisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to 

get ready three  fusees with powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that  they designed some sport 

of fowling as well as fishing. 



I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next  morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient 

and pendants out,  and  everything to accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patron  came on  board 

alone, and told me his guests had put off going from  some  business that fell out, and ordered me, with the 

man and boy,  as  usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for  that his  friends were to sup at his 

house, and commanded that as  soon as I got  some fish I should bring it home to his house; all  which I 

prepared to  do. 



CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE                                                                                       9 


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                                                     Robinson Crusoe 



This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my  thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have 

a little ship at my  command; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself,  not  for fishing business, 

but for a voyage; though I knew not,  neither did  I so much as consider, whither I should steer -  anywhere to 

get out of  that place was my desire. 



My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor,  to get something for our subsistence on 

board; for I told him we  must  not presume to eat of our patron's bread.  He said that was  true; so  he brought a 

large basket of rusk or biscuit, and three  jars of fresh  water, into the boat.  I knew where my patron's case  of 

bottles stood,  which it was evident, by the make, were taken out  of some English  prize, and I conveyed them 

into the boat while the  Moor was on shore,  as if they had been there before for our master.  I conveyed also a 

great lump of beeswax into the boat, which  weighed about half a  hundred-weight, with a parcel of twine or 

thread, a hatchet, a saw,  and a hammer, all of which were of great  use to us afterwards,  especially the wax, to 

make candles.  Another  trick I tried upon him,  which he innocently came into also: his  name was Ismael, 

which they  call Muley, or Moely; so I called to  him - "Moely," 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  some alcamies (a fowl like our  curlews) 

for ourselves, for I know  he keeps the gunner's stores in the  ship."  "Yes," says he, "I'll  bring some;" and 

accordingly he brought  a great leather pouch,  which held a pound and a half of powder, or  rather more; and 

another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with  some bullets,  and put all into the boat.  At the 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 was almost empty, pouring  what was in it into another; and thus furnished with everything 

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 no notice  of us;  and we were not above a mile out of the port before we  hauled in our  sail and set us 

down to fish.  The wind blew from the  N.N.E., which  was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly  I 

had been sure  to have made the coast of Spain, and at least  reached to the bay of  Cadiz; but my resolutions 

were, blow which  way it would, I would be  gone from that horrid place where I was,  and leave the rest to 

fate. 



After we had fished some time and caught nothing - for when I had  fish on my hook I would not pull them 

up, that he might not see  them  - I said to the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not  be thus  served; we 

must stand farther off."  He, thinking no harm,  agreed, and  being in the head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I 

had the helm,  I ran the boat out near a league farther, and then  brought her to, as  if I would fish; when, giving 

the boy the helm,  I stepped forward to  where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped  for something behind 

him, I took him by surprise with my arm under  his waist, and tossed  him clear overboard into the sea.  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 very  quickly, there being 

but little wind;  upon which I stepped into the  cabin, 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 would do 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 do 

you no harm; but if you  come near the boat  I'll shoot you through the head, 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 have  drowned the boy, but there was no 

venturing to trust him.  When he  was gone, 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 if you will not stroke your face to be true 

to me" - that  is,  swear by Mahomet and his father's beard - "I must throw you  into the  sea too."  The boy 

smiled in my face, and spoke so  innocently that I  could not distrust him, and swore to be faithful  to me, and 

go all  over the world with me. 



While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out  directly to sea with the boat, rather 

stretching to windward, that      they might think me gone towards the Straits' mouth (as indeed any  one that had 



CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE                                                                                            10 


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                                                    Robinson Crusoe 



been in their wits must have been supposed to do): for  who would have supposed we were sailed on to the 

southward, to the  truly Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to  surround us with their 

canoes and destroy us; where we could not go  on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more 

merciless savages of human kind. 



But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course,  and steered directly south and by east, 

bending my course a little  towards the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a  fair, fresh gale 

of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail  that I believe by the next day, at three o'clock in the 

afternoon,  when I first made the land, I could not be less than one hundred  and  fifty miles south of Sallee; 

quite beyond the Emperor of  Morocco's  dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, for  we saw no 

people. 



Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadful  apprehensions 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 I had sailed in 

that manner five days; and then the wind  shifting  to the southward, I concluded also that if any of our  vessels 

were in  chase of me, they also would now give over; so I  ventured to make to  the coast, and came to an 

anchor in the mouth  of a little river, I  knew not what, nor where, neither what  latitude, what country, what 

nation, or what river.  I neither saw,  nor desired to see any people;  the principal thing I 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 the country; but  as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such  dreadful noises of the  barking, roaring, 

and howling of wild  creatures, of we knew not  what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to  die with fear, and 

begged of me not to go on shore till day.  "Well,  Xury," said I,  "then I won't; but it may be that we may see 

men by  day, who will  be as bad to us as those lions."  "Then we give them the  shoot  gun," says Xury, 

laughing, "make them run wey."  Such English  Xury  spoke by conversing among us slaves.  However, I was 

glad to see  the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (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, and lay still  all night; I say  still, 

for we slept none; for in two or three  hours we saw vast great  creatures (we knew not what to call them)  of 

many sorts, come down to  the sea-shore and run into the water,  wallowing and washing themselves  for the 

pleasure of cooling  themselves; and they made such hideous  howlings and yellings, that  I never indeed heard 

the like. 



Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were  both more frighted when we heard one of 

these mighty creatures come  swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear  him by 

his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast.  Xury  said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I 

know; but poor  Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; "No," says I,  "Xury; we can slip our 

cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to  sea;  they cannot follow us far."  I had no sooner said so, but I 

perceived  the creature (whatever it was) within two oars' length,  which  something surprised me; however, I 

immediately stepped to the  cabin  door, and taking up my gun, fired at him; upon which he  immediately 

turned about and swam towards the shore again. 



But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous  cries and howlings that were raised, as well 

upon the edge of the  shore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the  gun, a thing I 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 night on that coast, and how to venture on  shore in the day  was another question 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 the  lions 

and tigers; at least we were equally  apprehensive of the danger  of it. 



Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or  other for water, for we had not a pint left 

in the boat; when and  where to get to it was the point.  Xury said, if I would let him go  on shore with one of 

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 the boat?  The boy answered with so  much affection  as made me love him ever 



CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE                                                                                          11 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



after.  Says he, "If wild  mans come, they eat  me, you go wey."  "Well, Xury," said I, "we  will both go and if 

the  wild mans come, we will kill them, they  shall eat neither of us."  So  I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to 

eat, and a dram out of our  patron's case of bottles which I  mentioned before; and we hauled the  boat in as 

near the shore as we  thought was proper, and so waded on  shore, carrying nothing but our  arms and two jars 

for water. 



I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming  of canoes with savages down the river; but the 

boy seeing a low  place  about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I  saw him  come running 

towards me.  I thought he was pursued by some  savage, or  frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward 

towards  him to help  him; but when 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 in colour, and longer legs; however, we  were very 

glad of  it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy  that poor Xury came  with, was to tell me he had found 

good water  and seen no wild mans. 



But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water,  for a little higher up the creek where we 

were we found the water  fresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so  we  filled our jars, 

and feasted on the hare he had killed, and  prepared  to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human 

creature in  that part of the country. 



As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well  that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape 

de Verde Islands  also,  lay not far off from the coast.  But as I had no instruments  to take  an observation to 

know what latitude we were in, and not  exactly  knowing, or at least remembering, what latitude they were  in, 

I knew   not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea  towards them;  otherwise I might now easily 

have found some of these  islands.  But my  hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I  came to that part 

where the English traded, I should find some of  their vessels upon  their usual design of trade, that would 

relieve  and take us in. 



By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be  that country which, lying between the 

Emperor of Morocco's  dominions  and the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by  wild beasts;  the 

negroes having abandoned it and gone farther south  for fear of the  Moors, and the Moors not thinking it 

worth  inhabiting by reason of its  barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking  it because of the prodigious  number 

of tigers, lions, leopards, and  other furious creatures which  harbour there; so that the Moors use  it for their 

hunting only, where  they go like an army, two or three  thousand men at a time; and indeed  for near a hundred 

miles  together upon this coast we saw nothing but a  waste, uninhabited  country by day, and heard nothing but 

howlings and  roaring of wild  beasts by night. 



Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,  being the high top of the Mountain 

Teneriffe in the Canaries, and  had  a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but  having  tried 

twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the  sea also  going too 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  left this place; and once in particular, being 

early in morning, we  came to an anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty  high; and the tide 

beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther  in.  Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine 

were,  calls  softly to me, and tells 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, fast asleep."  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 little over him.  "Xury," says  I, "you shall on  shore and kill him."  Xury, looked 

frighted, and  said, "Me kill! he  eat me at one mouth!" - one mouthful he meant.  However, I said no more  to 

the boy, but bade him lie still, and I  took our biggest gun, which  was almost musket-bore, and loaded it  with 

a good charge of powder,  and with two slugs, and laid it down;  then I loaded another gun with  two bullets; 



CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE                                                                                     12 


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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



and the third (for we  had three pieces) I loaded with  five smaller bullets.  I took the  best aim I could with the 

first  piece to have shot him in the head,  but he lay so with his leg raised  a little above his nose, that the  slugs 

hit his leg about the knee and  broke the bone.  He started  up, growling at first, but finding his leg  broken, fell 

down again;  and then got upon three legs, and gave the  most hideous roar that  ever I heard.  I was a little 

surprised that I  had not hit him on  the head; however, I took up the second piece  immediately, and  though he 

began to move off, fired again, 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 took heart, and  would have me  let him go on shore.  "Well, 

go," said I: so the boy  jumped into  the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to  shore with  the other 

hand, and coming close to the creature, put the  muzzle of  the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, 

which  despatched him quite. 



This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very  sorry to lose three charges of powder and 

shot upon a creature that  was good for nothing to us.  However, Xury said he would have some  of  him; so he 

comes 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 off his head, but he cut off a foot,  and brought it with  him, and it was a 

monstrous great one. 



I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might,  one way or other, be of some value to us; 

and I resolved to take  off  his skin if I could.  So Xury and I went to work with him; but  Xury  was much the 

better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to  do it.  Indeed, it took us both up the whole day, but at last we 

got off the  hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin,  the sun  effectually dried it in two days' time, 

and it afterwards  served me to  lie upon. 



                    CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND 



AFTER this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or  twelve days, living very sparingly on 

our provisions, which began  to  abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were  obliged to 

for fresh water.  My design in this was to make the  river  Gambia or Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the 

Cape de  Verde,  where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship; and if  I did  not, I knew not what 

course I had to take, but to seek for  the  islands, or perish there among the negroes.  I knew that all    the ships 

from Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea  or to Brazil,  or to the East Indies, made this cape, or 

those  islands; and, in a  word, I put the whole of my fortune 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 have  said, I began to see that the land was 

inhabited; and in two or  three  places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore  to look at  us; we 

could also perceive they were quite black and  naked.  I was  once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but 

Xury  was my better  counsellor, and said to me, "No go, no go."  However,  I hauled in  nearer the shore that I 

might talk to them, and I found  they ran along  the shore by me a good way.  I observed they had no  weapons 

in their hand, except one, who had a long slender stick,  which Xury said was a  lance, and that they could 

throw them a great  way with good aim; so I  kept at a distance, but talked with them by  signs as well as I 

could;  and particularly made signs for something  to eat: they beckoned to me  to stop my boat, and they would 

fetch  me some meat.  Upon this I  lowered the top of my sail and lay by,  and two of them ran up into the 

country, and in less than half-an-  hour came back, and brought with  them two pieces of dried flesh and  some 

corn, such as is the produce  of their country; but we neither  knew what the one or the other was;  however, we 

were willing to  accept it, but how to come at it was our  next dispute, for I would  not venture on shore to 

them, and they were  as much afraid of us;  but they took a safe way for us all, for they  brought it to the  shore 

and laid it down, and went and stood a great  way off till we  fetched it on board, and then came close to us 

again. 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                           13 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



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, 

one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury  from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the 

male  pursuing  the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we  could not  tell, any more than we could 

tell whether it was usual or  strange, but  I believe it was the latter; because, in the first  place, those  ravenous 

creatures seldom appear but in the night;  and, in the second  place, we found the people terribly frighted, 

especially the women.  The man that had the lance or dart did not  fly from them, but the  rest did; however, as 

the two creatures ran  directly into the water,  they did not offer to fall upon any of the  negroes, but plunged 

themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if  they had come for their  diversion; at last one of them began to 

come nearer our boat than at  first I expected; but I lay ready for  him, for I had loaded my gun  with all 

possible expedition, and bade  Xury load both the others.  As  soon as he came fairly within my  reach, I fired, 

and shot him directly  in the head; immediately he  sank down into the water, but rose  instantly, and plunged 

up and  down, as if he were struggling for life,  and so indeed he was; he  immediately made to the shore; but 

between  the wound, which was his  mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water,  he died just before  he reached 

the shore. 



It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor  creatures at the noise and fire of my gun: some of 

them were even  ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror;  but when they saw the 

creature dead, and sunk in the water, and  that  I made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and 

came,  and began to search 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 negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore,  and  found that it 

was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to  an  admirable degree; and the negroes held up their hands 

with  admiration,  to think what it was I had killed him with. 



The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise  of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly 

to the mountains  from  whence they came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it  was.  I  found quickly the 

negroes wished to eat the flesh of this  creature, so  I was willing to have them take it as a favour from  me; 

which, when I  made signs to them that they might take him, they  were very thankful  for.  Immediately they 

fell to work with him;  and though they had no  knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood,  they took off his 

skin as  readily, and much more readily, than we  could have done with a knife.  They offered me some of the 

flesh,  which I declined, pointing out  that I would give it them; but made  signs for the skin, which they  gave 

me very freely, and brought me  a great deal more of their  provisions, which, though I did not  understand, yet 

I accepted.  I  then made signs to them for some  water, and held out one of my jars to  them, turning it bottom 

upward, 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 two women, and brought a great vessel made of  earth, and  burnt, as I supposed, 

in the sun, this they set down to me,  as  before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all 

three.  The women were as naked as the men. 



I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water;  and leaving 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 a great 

length into the sea, at about the distance of  four or five  leagues before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept 

a large offing  to make this point.  At length, doubling the point,  at about two  leagues from the land, I saw 

plainly land on the other  side, to  seaward; then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed,  that this  was the 

Cape de Verde, and those the islands called, from  thence, Cape  de Verde Islands.  However, they were at a 

great  distance, and I could  not well tell what I had best to do; for if I  should be taken with a  fresh of wind, I 

might neither reach one or  other. 



In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin  and sat 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  frighted out of 

his wits, thinking it must needs be some of  his  master's ships sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far 

enough  out of  their reach.  I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately  saw, not only  the ship, but that it was a 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                           14 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



Portuguese ship; and, as  I thought, was  bound to the coast of Guinea, for negroes.  But,  when I observed the 

course she steered, I was soon convinced they  were bound some other  way, and did not design to come any 

nearer to  the shore; upon which I  stretched out to sea as much as I could,  resolving to speak with them  if 

possible. 



With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to  come in their way, but that they would be gone 

by before I could  make  any signal to them: but after I had crowded to the utmost, and  began  to despair, they, 

it seems, saw by the help of their glasses  that it  was some European boat, which they supposed must belong 

to  some ship  that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up.  I was  encouraged with this, and as I had 

my patron's ancient on  board, I  made 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 they  did 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 on board, called to me: and I answered him, and told him I  was an 

Englishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from  the  Moors, at Sallee; they then bade me come on 

board, and very  kindly  took me in, and all my goods. 



It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that  I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from 

such a miserable and  almost hopeless condition as I was in; and I immediately offered  all  I had to the captain 

of the ship, as a return for my  deliverance; but  he generously told me he would take nothing from  me, but that 

all I  had should be delivered safe to me when I came  to the Brazils.  "For,"  says he, "I have saved your life on 

no  other terms than I would be  glad to be saved myself: and it may,  one time or other, be my lot to  be taken 

up in the same condition.  Besides," said he, "when I carry  you to the Brazils, so great a way  from your own 

country, if I should  take from you what you have, you  will be starved there, and then I  only take away that 

life I have  given.  No, no," says he: "Seignior  Inglese" (Mr.  Englishman), "I  will carry you thither in charity, 

and  those things will help to  buy your subsistence there, and your passage  home again." 



As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the  performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen 

that none should  touch anything that I had: then he took everything into his own  possession, and gave me 

back an exact inventory of them, that I  might  have them, even to my three earthen jars. 



As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me  he would buy it of me for his ship's use; 

and asked me what I would  have for it?  I told him he had been so generous to me in  everything  that I could 

not offer to make any price of the boat,  but left it  entirely to him: upon which he told me he would give me  a 

note of hand  to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil;  and when it came  there, if any one offered to 

give more, he would  make it up.  He  offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my  boy Xury, which I  was 

loth to take; not that I was unwilling to let  the captain have  him, but I was very loth to sell the poor boy's 

liberty, who had  assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own.  However, when I let him  know my reason, he 

owned it to be just, and  offered me this medium,  that he would give the boy an obligation to  set him free in 

ten years,  if he turned Christian: upon this, and  Xury saying he was willing to  go to him, I let the captain have 

him. 



We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay  de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in 

about twenty-two days  after.  And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable  of  all conditions 

of life; and what to do next with myself I was to  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 for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's  skin, which I  had in my 

boat, and caused everything I had in the  ship to be  punctually delivered to me; and what I was willing to  sell 

he bought  of me, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns,  and a piece of the  lump of beeswax - for I had 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                        15 


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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



made candles of the  rest: in a word, I  made about two hundred and twenty pieces of  eight of all my cargo; and 

with this stock I went on shore in the  Brazils. 



I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a  good honest man like himself, who had 

an INGENIO, as they call it  (that is, a plantation and a sugar-house).  I lived with him some  time, and 

acquainted myself by that means with the manner of  planting  and making of sugar; and seeing how well the 

planters  lived, and how  they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a  licence to settle  there, I would turn 

planter among them: resolving  in the meantime to  find out some way to get my money, which I had  left in 

London,  remitted to me.  To this purpose, getting a kind of  letter of  naturalisation, I purchased as much land 

that was uncured  as my money  would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and  settlement; such  a one 

as might be suitable to the stock 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 call him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to  mine, and we went 

on very sociably together.  My stock was but low,  as well as his; and we rather planted for food than anything 

else,  for about two years.  However, we began to increase, and our land  began to come into order; so that the 

third year we planted some  tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for  planting canes in 

the year to come.  But we both wanted help; and  now  I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting 

with my  boy  Xury. 



But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great  wonder.  I hail no remedy but to go on: I had 

got into an  employment  quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the  life I  delighted in, and for 

which I forsook my father's house, and  broke  through all his good advice.  Nay, I was coming into the very 

middle  station, or upper degree of low life, which my father  advised me to  before, and which, if I resolved to 

go on with, I  might as well have  stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself  in the world as I had  done; 

and I used often to say to myself, I  could have done this as  well in England, among my friends, as have  gone 

five thousand miles  off to do it among strangers and savages,  in a wilderness, and at such  a distance as never 

to hear from 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 work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I  used to say, I lived 

just like a man cast away upon some desolate  island, that had nobody there but himself.  But how just has it 

been  - and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their  present  conditions with others that are 

worse, Heaven may oblige  them to make  the exchange, and be convinced of their former  felicity by their 

experience - I say, how just has it been, that  the truly solitary life  I reflected on, in an island of mere 

desolation, should be my lot, who  had so often unjustly compared it  with the life which I then led, in  which, 

had I continued, I had in  all probability been exceeding  prosperous and rich. 



I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the  plantation before my kind friend, the captain 

of the ship that took  me up at sea, went back - for the ship remained there, in providing  his lading and 

preparing for his voyage, nearly three months - when  telling him what little stock I had left behind me in 

London, he  gave  me this friendly and sincere advice:- "Seignior Inglese," says  he (for  so he always called 

me), "if you will give me letters, and  a  procuration in 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, and in such goods as are 

proper for this country, I  will  bring you the produce of them, God willing, at my return; but,  since      human 

affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, I  would have  you give orders but for one hundred pounds 

sterling,  which, you say,  is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for  the first; so that,  if it come safe, you 

may order the rest the  same way, and, if it  miscarry, you may have the other half to have  recourse to for your 

supply." 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                            16 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could  not but be convinced it was the best 

course I could take; so I  accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had  left  my money, 

and a procuration to the Portuguese captain, as he  desired. 



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 at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what  condition I was now in, with 

all other necessary directions for my  supply; and when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found  means, 

by some of the English merchants there, to send over, not     the order  only, but a full account of my story to a 

merchant in  London, who  represented it effectually to her; whereupon she not  only delivered  the money, but 

out of her own pocket sent the  Portugal captain a very  handsome present for his humanity and  charity to me. 



The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English  goods, such as the captain had written for, 

sent them directly to  him  at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils;  among  which, without 

my direction (for I was too young in my  business to  think of them), he had taken care to have all sorts of 

tools,  ironwork, 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  surprised with the joy of it; and my stood 

steward, the captain,  had  laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a  present  for himself, to 

purchase 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; for my goods being all English manufacture,  such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things 

particularly valuable and  desirable in the country, I found means to sell them to a very  great  advantage; so 

that I might say I had more than four times the  value of  my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my 

poor  neighbour - I  mean in the advancement of my plantation; for the  first thing I did, I  bought me a negro 

slave, and an European  servant also - I mean another  besides that which the captain  brought me from Lisbon. 



But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our  greatest adversity, so it was with me.  I 

went on the next year  with  great success in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of  tobacco  on my own 

ground, more than I had disposed of for  necessaries among my  neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each  of 

above a  hundredweight, were well cured, and laid by against the  return of the  fleet from Lisbon: and now 

increasing in business and  wealth, my head  began to be full of projects and undertakings  beyond my reach; 

such as  are, indeed, often the ruin of the best  heads in business.  Had I  continued in the station I was now in, I 

had room for all the happy  things to have yet befallen me for which  my father so earnestly  recommended a 

quiet, retired life, and of  which he had so sensibly  described the middle station of life to be  full of; but other 

things  attended me, and I was still to be the  wilful agent of all my own  miseries; and particularly, to increase 

my fault, and double the  reflections upon myself, which in my  future sorrows I should have  leisure to make, 

all these  miscarriages were procured by my apparent  obstinate adhering to my  foolish inclination of 

wandering abroad, and  pursuing that  inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of  doing myself  good 

in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, and  those  measures of life, which nature and Providence 

concurred to  present  me with, and to make my duty. 



As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so I  could not be content now, but I must go 

and leave the happy view I  had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to  pursue a rash 

and immoderate desire of rising faster than the  nature  of the thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down 

again  into the  deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or  perhaps could  be consistent with life 

and a state of health in the  world. 



To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this part  of my story.  You may suppose, that having 

now lived almost four  years in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well  upon my plantation, 

I had not only learned the language, but had  contracted acquaintance and friendship among my 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                          17 


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                                                    Robinson Crusoe 



fellow-planters, as  well as among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port;  and  that, in my 

discourses among them, I had frequently given them  an  account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea: 

the manner of  trading with the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase  upon  the coast for trifles - 

such as beads, toys, knives, scissors,  hatchets, bits of glass, and the like - not only gold-dust, Guinea  grains, 

elephants' teeth, but negroes, 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 of  negroes, which was a trade at that time, not only not far entered  into, but, as far as it 

was, had been carried on by assientos, or  permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the 

public stock: so that few negroes were bought, and these  excessively  dear. 



It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of  my acquaintance, and talking of those 

things very earnestly, three  of  them came to me next morning, and told me they had been musing  very  much 

upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night,  and they  came to make a secret proposal to me; and, 

after enjoining  me to  secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship  to go to  Guinea; that they had 

all plantations as well as I, and  were  straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a  trade  that 

could not be carried on, because they could not publicly  sell the  negroes when they came home, so they 

desired to make but  one voyage,  to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide  them among their  own 

plantations; and, in a word, 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 me that I  should have my equal share  of the negroes, 

without providing any  part of the stock. 



This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to  any one that had not had a settlement and 

a plantation of his own  to  look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very  considerable,  and with a 

good stock upon it; but for me, that was  thus entered and        established, and had nothing to do but to go on as  I 

had begun, for  three or four years more, and to have sent for the  other hundred  pounds from England; and 

who in that time, and with  that little  addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three  or four  thousand 

pounds sterling, and that increasing too - for me  to think of  such a voyage was the most preposterous thing 

that ever  man in such  circumstances could be guilty of. 



But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist  the offer than I could restrain my first 

rambling designs when my  father' good counsel was lost upon me.  In a word, I told them I  would go with all 

my heart, if they would undertake to look after  my  plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such 

as I  should  direct, if I miscarried.  This they all engaged to do, and  entered  into writings or covenants to do so; 

and I made a formal  will,  disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my death,  making the  captain of 

the ship that had saved my life, as before,  my universal  heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I 

had directed in  my will; one half of the produce being to himself,  and the other to be  shipped to England. 



In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to  keep up my plantation.  Had I used half as 

much prudence to have  looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I  ought  to have done 

and not to have done, I had certainly never gone  away  from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the 

probable  views of a  thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea,  attended with  all its common 

hazards, to say nothing of the reasons  I had to expect  particular misfortunes 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,  and the cargo furnished, and all things done, as by agreement, by  my  partners in the 

voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1st  September 1659, being the same day eight years that I went 

from my  father and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their  authority, and the fool to my own 

interests. 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                                18 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



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 on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were  fit  for our 

trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass,  shells,  and other trifles, especially little looking-glasses, 

knives,  scissors, hatchets, and the like. 



The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the  northward upon our own coast, with design to 

stretch over for the  African coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern  latitude, which, it 

seems, was the manner of course in those days.  We  had very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way 

upon  our own  coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augustino;  from whence,  keeping further off at 

sea, we lost sight of land, and  steered as if  we were bound for the isle Fernando de Noronha,  holding our 

course  N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on the east.  In this course we  passed the line in about twelve days' 

time, and  were, by our last  observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes  northern latitude,  when a 

violent tornado, or hurricane, took us  quite out of our  knowledge.  It began from the south-east, came  about to 

the  north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from  whence it blew in  such a terrible manner, that for 

twelve days  together we could do  nothing but drive, and, scudding away before  it, let it carry us  whither fate 

and the fury of the winds  directed; and, during these  twelve days, 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  our men die of the calenture, and one man and 

the boy washed  overboard.  About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,  the  master made an 

observation as well as he could, and found that  he was  in about eleven degrees north latitude, but that he was 

twenty-two  degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St.  Augustino; so that  he found he was upon the 

coast of Guiana, or the  north part of Brazil,  beyond the river Amazon, toward that of the  river Orinoco, 

commonly  called the Great River; and began to  consult with me what course he  should take, for the ship was 

leaky,  and very much disabled, and he  was going directly back to the coast  of Brazil. 



I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the  sea-coast of America with him, we concluded 

there was no inhabited  country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle  of  the Caribbee 

Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for  Barbadoes; which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft 

of  the  Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in  about  fifteen days' sail; whereas we 

could not possibly make our     voyage to  the coast of Africa without some assistance both to our  ship and to 

ourselves. 



With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by  W., in order to reach some of our English 

islands, where I hoped  for  relief.  But our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in  the  latitude of 

twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm  came upon  us, which carried us away with the same 

impetuosity  westward, and  drove us so out of the way of 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 ever returning to our own 

country. 



In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men  early in the morning cried out, "Land!" and 

we had no sooner run  out  of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the  world  we were, than 

the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment  her motion  being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a 

manner that we  expected we should all have perished immediately;  and we were  immediately driven into our 

close quarters, to shelter  us from the  very foam and spray of the sea. 



It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like condition  to describe or conceive the consternation of 

men in such   circumstances.  We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it  was we were driven - 

whether an island or the main, whether  inhabited  or not inhabited.  As the rage of the wind was still  great, 

though  rather less than at first, we could not so much as  hope to have the  ship hold many minutes without 

breaking into  pieces, unless the winds,  by a kind of miracle, should turn  immediately about.  In a word, we  sat 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                          19 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



looking upon one another, and  expecting death every moment, and  every man, accordingly, preparing  for 

another world; for there was  little or nothing 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, the ship did  not break yet, and that the 

master said the  wind began to abate. 



Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the  ship having thus struck upon the sand, and 

sticking too fast for us  to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed,  and had nothing to 

do but to think of saving our lives as well as  we  could.  We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but 

she was  first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in  the next  place she broke away, and either 

sunk or was driven off to  sea; so  there was no hope from her.  We had another boat on board,  but how to  get 

her off into the sea was a doubtful thing.  However,  there was no  time to debate, for we fancied that the ship 

would   break in pieces  every minute, and some told us she was actually  broken already. 



In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and  with the help of the rest of the men got her 

slung over the ship's  side; and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves,  being eleven in number, 

to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though  the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully 

high  upon the shore, and might be well called DEN WILD ZEE, as the Dutch  call the sea in a storm. 



And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly  that the sea went so high that the boat could 

not live, and that we  should be inevitably drowned.  As to making sail, we had none, nor  if  we had could we 

have done anything with it; so we worked at the  oar  towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men 

going to  execution; for we all knew that when the boat came near the shore  she  would be dashed in a 

thousand pieces by the breach of the sea.  However, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest 

manner;  and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our  destruction with our own hands, pulling 

as well as we could towards    land. 



What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal,  we knew not.  The only hope that could 

rationally give us the least  shadow of expectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, or  the  mouth of 

some river, where by great chance we might have run  our boat  in, or got under the lee of the land, and 

perhaps made    smooth water.  But there was nothing like this appeared; but as we  made nearer and  nearer the 

shore, the land looked more frightful  than the sea. 



After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as  we reckoned it, a raging wave, 

mountain-like, came rolling astern  of  us, and plainly bade us expect the COUP DE GRACE.  It took us  with 

such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating  us as  well from the boat as from one another, gave 

us no time to  say, "O  God!" for we were all swallowed up in a moment. 



Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I  sank into the water; for though I swam 

very well, yet I could not  deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave  having driven me, 

or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the  shore, and having 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 mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet, and  endeavoured to  make on 

towards the land as fast as I could before  another wave should  return and take me up again; but I soon found 

it was impossible to  avoid it; for I saw the sea 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 to hold my  breath, and raise 

myself upon the  water if I could; and so, by  swimming, to preserve my breathing, and  pilot myself towards 

the  shore, if possible, my greatest concern now  being that the sea, as  it would carry me a great way towards 

the shore  when it came on,  might not carry me back again with it when it gave  back towards the  sea. 



The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty  feet deep in its own body, and I could 

feel myself carried with a  mighty force and swiftness towards the shore - a very great way;  but  I held my 



CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT  ISLAND                                                                         20 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward  with all  my might.  I was ready to burst with holding my 

breath,  when, as I  felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I  found my head and  hands shoot out 

above the surface of the water;  and though it was not  two seconds of time that I could keep myself  so, yet it 

relieved me  greatly, gave me breath, 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 spent itself, and began to  return, I struck forward against 

the return of the waves, and felt  ground again with my feet.  I stood  still a few moments to recover  breath, and 

till the waters went from  me, and then took to my heels  and ran with what strength I had further  towards the 

shore.  But  neither would this deliver me from the fury of  the sea, which came  pouring in after me again; and 

twice more I was  lifted up by the  waves and carried forward as before, the shore being  very flat. 



The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for the  sea having hurried me along as before, 

landed me, or rather dashed  me, against a piece of rock, and that with such force, that it left  me senseless, and 

indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for  the  blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were 

quite out  of my body; and had it returned again immediately, I must  have been  strangled in the water; but I 

recovered a little before  the return of  the waves, and seeing I should be covered again with  the water, I 

resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so  to hold my  breath, if possible, till the wave went back. 

Now, as  the waves were  not so high as at first, being nearer land, I held  my hold till the  wave abated, and 

then fetched another 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 me away; and the  next run I took, I got to  the mainland, where, to my 

great comfort,  I clambered up the cliffs of  the shore and sat me down upon the  grass, free from danger and 

quite  out of the reach of the water. 



I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank  God that my life was saved, in a case 

wherein there was some  minutes  before 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 it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: 

and I  do not wonder now at the custom, when a malefactor, who has  the halter  about his neck, is tied up, and 

just going to be turned  off, and has a  reprieve brought to him - I say, I do not wonder  that they bring a 

surgeon with it, to let him blood that very  moment they tell him of  it, that the surprise may not drive the 

animal spirits from the heart  and overwhelm him. 



"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first." 



I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole  being, as I may say, wrapped up in a 

contemplation of my  deliverance;  making a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot  describe; 

reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and  that there  should not be one soul saved but myself; 

for, as for  them, I never saw  them afterwards, or any sign of them, except  three of their hats, one  cap, and two 

shoes that were not fellows. 



I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of  the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, 

it lay so far of; and  considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore 



After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my  condition, I began to look round me, to see 

what kind of place I  was  in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my comforts  abate,  and that, in a 

word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I was  wet, had  no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat or 

drink to comfort  me; neither did I see any prospect before me but  that of perishing  with hunger or being 

devoured by wild beasts; and  that which was  particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no  weapon, either to 

hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or  to defend myself  against any other creature that might desire 

to  kill me for theirs.  In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife,  a tobacco-pipe, and a  little tobacco in a 

box.  This was all my  provisions; and this threw  me into such terrible agonies of mind,  that for a while I ran 

about  like a madman.  Night coming upon me,  I began with a heavy heart to  consider what would be my lot if 

there were any ravenous beasts in  that country, as at night they  always come abroad for their prey. 



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All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to get  up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but 

thorny, which grew near  me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next  day  what death I 

should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life.  I  walked about a furlong 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 little tobacco into my 

mouth to prevent hunger, I  went to  the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place  myself so that  if I 

should sleep I might not fall.  And having cut  me a short stick,  like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my 

lodging; and having  been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep,  and slept as  comfortably as, I believe, few 

could have done in my  condition, and  found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, I  ever was on such  an 

occasion. 



                      CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE                                   ISLAND 



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  which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the  night from the sand 

where she lay by the swelling of the tide, and  was driven up almost as far as the rock which I at first 

mentioned,  where I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it.  This  being within about a mile 

from the shore where I was, and the  ship  seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that  at  least 

I might save some necessary 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 the sea 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 found a neck or inlet of water between 

me and  the boat  which was about half a mile broad; so I came back for the  present,  being more intent upon 

getting at the ship, where I hoped  to find  something for my present subsistence. 



A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed  so far out that I could come within a quarter 

of a mile of the  ship.  And here I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw  evidently  that if we had kept 

on board we had been all safe - that  is to say, we  had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so  miserable as 

to be  left entirety destitute of all comfort and  company as I now was.  This  forced tears to my eyes again; but 

as  there was little relief in that,  I resolved, 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 I came to the ship my  difficulty was still greater 

to know  how to get on board; for, as  she lay aground, and high out of the  water, there was nothing  within my 

reach to lay hold of.  I swam round  her twice, and the  second time I spied a small piece of rope, which I 

wondered I did  not see at first, hung down by the fore-chains so low,  as that with  great difficulty I got hold 

of it, and by the help of  that rope I  got up into the forecastle of the ship.  Here I found that  the ship  was 

bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but  that she  lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, 

rather earth,  that  her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost  to  the water.  By this means 

all her quarter was free, and all that  was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to 

search, and to see what was spoiled and what was free.  And, first,  I  found that all the ship's provisions were 

dry and untouched by  the  water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread  room  and filled my 

pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I went about  other  things, for I had no time to lose.  I also found some rum 

in  the great  cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had,  indeed, need  enough of to spirit me for what 

was before me.  Now I  wanted nothing  but a boat to furnish myself with many things which  I foresaw would 

be  very necessary to me. 



It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had;  and this extremity roused my application.  We 

had several spare  yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or  two in the ship; I 

resolved to fall to work with these, and I flung  as many of them overboard as I could manage for their weight, 

tying  every one with a rope, that they might not drive away.  When this  was  done I went down the ship's side, 

and pulling them to me, I  tied four  of them together at both ends as well as I could, in the  form of a  raft, and 



CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE                    ISLAND                                                              22 


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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



laying two or three short pieces of plank upon  them  crossways, I found I could walk upon it very well, but 

that it  was not  able to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light.  So I went  to work, and with a 

carpenter's saw I cut a spare topmast  into three  lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of  labour 

and  pains.  But the hope of furnishing myself with  necessaries encouraged  me to go beyond what I should 

have been able  to have done upon another  occasion. 



My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight.  My  next care was what to load it with, and 

how to preserve what I laid  upon it from the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering  this.  I first laid all 

the planks or boards upon it that I could  get, and having considered 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; the first of 

these I filled with  provisions - viz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of  dried goat's flesh (which 

we lived much upon), and a little  remainder  of European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls  which 

we  brought to sea with us, but the fowls were killed.  There  had been  some barley and wheat together; but, to 

my great  disappointment, I  found afterwards that the rats had eaten or  spoiled it all.  As for  liquors, I found 

several, cases of bottles  belonging to our skipper,  in which were some cordial waters; and,  in all, about five or 

six  gallons of rack.  These I stowed by  themselves, there being no need to  put them into the chest, nor any 

room for them.  While I was doing  this, I found the tide begin to  flow, though very calm; and I had the 

mortification to see my coat,  shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left  on the shore, upon the sand,  swim away. 

As for my breeches, which  were only linen, and open-  kneed, I swam on board in them and my  stockings. 

However, this set  me on rummaging for clothes, of which I  found enough, but took no  more than I wanted for 

present use, for I  had others things which  my eye was more upon - as, first, tools to  work with on shore.  And 

it was after long searching that I found out  the carpenter's chest,  which was, indeed, a very useful prize to me, 

and much more  valuable than a shipload of gold would have been at that  time.  I  got it down to my raft, whole 

as it was, without losing time  to  look into it, for I knew in general what it contained. 



My next care was for some ammunition and arms.  There were two very  good fowling-pieces in the great 

cabin, and two pistols.  These I  secured first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and  two old 

rusty swords.  I knew there were three barrels of powder in  the ship, but knew not 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 to my 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 neither sail, oar, nor  rudder; and the  least capful of wind would have 

overset all my  navigation. 



I had three encouragements - 1st, a smooth, calm sea; 2ndly, the  tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, 

what little wind  there was blew me towards the land.  And thus, having found two or  three broken oars 

belonging to the boat - and, besides the tools  which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a 

hammer;  with  this cargo I put to sea.  For a mile or thereabouts my raft  went very  well, only that I found it 

drive a little distant from  the place where  I had landed before; by which I perceived that  there was some 

indraft  of the water, and consequently I hoped to  find some creek or river  there, which I might 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 of the land, and I found a strong current 

of the tide set into it; so I guided my raft as well as I could, to keep in the  middle of the stream. 



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  nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a  shoal, and not being 

aground at the other end, it wanted but a  little  that all my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was 

afloat, and  to fallen into the water.  I did my utmost, by setting  my back against  the chests, to keep them in 

their places, but could  not thrust off the  raft with all my strength; neither durst I stir  from the posture I was  in; 

but holding up the 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 a level; and a  little after, the water  still-rising, my raft 



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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



floated again, and I  thrust her off with the oar  I had into the channel, and then  driving up higher, I at length 

found  myself in the mouth of a  little river, with land on both sides, and a  strong current of tide  running 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 in time to see some ships at sea, and  therefore resolved to  place myself as near the coast as I could. 



At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to  which with great pain and difficulty I guided 

my raft, and at last  got so near that, reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her  directly in.  But here I had 

like to have dipped all my cargo into  the sea 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 on shore, would lie so high, and the other 

sink  lower, as  before, that it would endanger my cargo again.  All that  I could do  was to wait till the tide was 

at the highest, keeping  the raft with my  oar like an anchor, to hold 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 I found water enough 

-  for my raft drew about a  foot of water - I thrust her upon that  flat piece of ground, and there  fastened or 

moored her, by sticking  my two broken oars into the  ground, one on one side near one end,  and one on the 

other side near  the other end; and thus I lay till  the 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  my habitation, and where to stow my 

goods to secure them from  whatever might happen.  Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the  continent or 

on an island; whether inhabited or not inhabited;  whether in danger of wild beasts or not.  There was a hill not 

above  a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which  seemed to  overtop some other hills, 

which lay as in a ridge from it  northward.  I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the  pistols, and a 

horn of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for  discovery up to the  top of that hill, where, after I had with 

great  labour and difficulty  got to the top, I saw any fate, to my great  affliction - viz. that I  was in an island 

environed every way with  the sea: no land to be seen  except some rocks, which lay a great  way off; and two 

small islands,  less than this, which lay about  three leagues to the west. 



I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw  good reason 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, and what not.  At my coming back, I shot at a great bird 

which I  saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood.  I  believe it was  the first gun that had been fired 

there since the  creation of the  world.  I had no sooner fired, than from all parts  of the wood there  arose an 

innumerable number of fowls, of many  sorts, making a confused  screaming and crying, and every one 

according to his usual note, but  not one of them of any kind that I  knew.  As for the creature I  killed, I took it 

to be a kind of  hawk, its colour and beak resembling  it, but it had no talons or  claws more than common.  Its 

flesh was  carrion, and fit for  nothing. 



Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell to  work to bring my cargo on shore, which 

took me up the rest of that  day.  What to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where  to  rest, for I 

was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing  but some  wild beast might devour me, though, as I 

afterwards found,  there was  really no need for those fears. 



However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round with the  chest and boards that I had brought on shore, 

and made a kind of  hut  for that night's lodging.  As for food, I yet saw not which way  to  supply myself, except 

that I had seen two or three creatures  like  hares run out of the wood where I shot the fowl. 



I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many things  out of the ship which would be useful to me, 

and particularly some  of  the rigging and sails, and such other things as might come to  land;  and I resolved to 

make another voyage on board the vessel, if  possible.  And as I knew that the first storm that blew must 

necessarily break her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other  things apart till I had got everything out of the 

ship that I could  get.  Then I called a council - that is to say in my thoughts -  whether I should take back the 



CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE                   ISLAND                                                            24 


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                                                   Robinson Crusoe 



raft; but this appeared  impracticable:  so I resolved to go as before, when the tide was  down; and I did so,  only 

that I stripped before I went from my hut,     having nothing on but  my chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, 

and a pair of pumps on my  feet. 



I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second raft; and,  having had experience of the first, I neither 

made this so  unwieldy,  nor loaded it so hard, but yet I brought away several  things very  useful to me; as first, 

in the carpenters stores I  found two or three  bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-  jack, a dozen or two 

of  hatchets, and, above all, that most useful  thing called a grindstone.  All these I secured, together with 

several things belonging to the  gunner, particularly two or three  iron crows, and two barrels of  musket 

bullets, seven muskets,  another fowling-piece, with some small  quantity of powder more; a  large bagful of 

small shot, and a great  roll of sheet-lead; but  this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it  up to get it over the 

ship's side. 



Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I could  find, and a spare fore-topsail, a hammock, and 

some bedding; and  with  this I loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on  shore, to  my very great 

comfort. 



I was under some apprehension, during my absence from the land,  that at least my provisions might be 

devoured on shore: but when I  came back I found 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 little distance, 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 with 

me.  I presented my gun at her, but,  as she  did not understand it, she was perfectly unconcerned at it,  nor did 

she offer to stir away; upon which I tossed her a bit of  biscuit,  though by the way, I was not very free of it, for 

my store  was not  great: however, I spared her a bit, I say, and she went to  it, smelled  at it, and ate it, and 

looked (as if pleased) for more;  but I thanked  her, and could spare no more: so she marched off. 



Having got my second cargo on shore - though I was fain to open the  barrels 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 the sail and 

some poles which I cut for that purpose: and into  this tent I brought everything that I knew would spoil either 

with  rain or sun; and I piled all the empty chests and casks up in a  circle round the tent, to fortify 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  boards within, and an empty chest set up 

on end without; and  spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols  just  at my head, and 

my gun at length by me, I went to bed for the  first  time, and slept very quietly all night, for I was very weary 

and  heavy; for the night before I had slept little, and had  laboured very  hard all day to fetch all those things 

from the ship,   and to get them  on shore. 



I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up,  I believe, for one man: but I was not 

satisfied still, for while  the  ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get  everything  out of her that I 

could; so every day at low water I  went on board,  and brought 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  small ropes and rope-twine 

I  could get, with a piece of spare canvas,  which was 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 was fain to  cut them in pieces, 

and bring as much at a  time as I could, for  they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere  canvas only. 



But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of all,  after I had made five or six such voyages as 

these, and thought I  had  nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling  with -  I say, after 

all this, I found a great hogshead of bread,  three large  runlets of rum, or spirits, a box of sugar, and a  barrel of 

fine  flour; this was surprising to me, because I had  given over expecting  any more provisions, except what 

was spoiled  by the water.  I soon  emptied the hogshead of the bread, and  wrapped it up, parcel by  parcel, in 



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pieces of the sails, which I  cut out; and, in a word, I got  all this safe on shore also. 



The next day I made another voyage, and now, having plundered the  ship of what was portable and fit to 

hand out, I began with the  cables.  Cutting the great cable into pieces, such as I could move,  I  got two cables 

and a hawser on shore, with all the ironwork I  could  get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the 

mizzen-  yard, and  everything I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it  with all these  heavy goods, and came 

away.  But my good luck began  now to leave me;  for this raft was so unwieldy, and so overladen,  that, after I 

had  entered the little cove where I had landed the  rest of my goods, not  being able to guide it so handily as I 

did  the other, it overset, and  threw me and all my cargo into the  water.  As for myself, it was no  great harm, 

for I was near the  shore; but as to my cargo, it was a  great part of it lost,  especially the 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  the cable 

ashore, and some of the iron, though  with infinite  labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a  work 

which  fatigued me very much.  After this, I went every day on  board, and  brought away what I could get. 



I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven times on  board the ship, in which time I had 

brought away all that one pair  of  hands could well be supposed capable to bring; though I believe  verily, had 

the calm weather held, I should have brought away the  whole ship, piece by piece.  But preparing the twelfth 

time to go  on   board, I found the wind began to rise: however, at low water I  went on  board, and though I 

thought I had rummaged the cabin so  effectually  that nothing more could be found, yet I discovered a  locker 

with  drawers in it, in one of which I found two or three  razors, and one  pair of large scissors, with some ten 

or a dozen of  good knives and  forks: in another I found about thirty-six pounds  value in money -            some 

European coin, some Brazil, some pieces 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 taking off the ground; one of those knives is worth all this  heap; I have no manner 

of use for thee - e'en remain where thou  art,  and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth 

saying."  However, upon second thoughts I took it away; and  wrapping all this  in a piece of canvas, I began to 

think of making  another raft; but  while I was preparing this, I found the sky  overcast, and the wind  began to 

rise, and in a quarter of an hour  it blew a fresh gale from  the shore.  It presently occurred to me  that it was in 

vain to pretend  to make a raft with the wind  offshore; and that it was my business to  be gone before the tide 

of  flood began, otherwise I might not be able  to reach the shore at  all.  Accordingly, I let myself down into the 

water, and swam  across the channel, which lay between the ship and the  sands, and  even that with difficulty 

enough, partly with the weight of  the  things I had about me, and partly the roughness of the water; for  the 

wind rose very hastily, and before it was quite high water it  blew a storm. 



But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all my  wealth about me, very secure.  It blew very hard 

all night, and in  the morning, when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be  seen!  I was a little surprised, 

but recovered myself with the  satisfactory  reflection that I had lost no time, nor abated any  diligence, to get 

everything 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  had more time. 



I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of anything out  of her, except what might drive on shore 

from her wreck; as,  indeed,  divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were  of small  use to me. 



My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against  either savages, if any should appear, 

or wild beasts, if any were  in  the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do  this, and  what 

kind 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 manner and description of which, it may not  be improper to give an  account 

of. 



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I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settlement,  because it was upon a low, moorish ground, 

near the sea, and I  believed it would not be wholesome, and more particularly because  there was no fresh 

water near it; so I resolved to find a more  healthy and more convenient spot of ground. 



I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would he  proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water, 

I just now mentioned;  2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun; 3rdly, security from  ravenous creatures, 

whether man or beast; 4thly, a view to the sea,  that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any 

advantage  for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my  expectation yet. 



In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the  side of a rising hill, whose front towards this 

little plain was  steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from  the top.  On the one 

side of the 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  to pitch my tent.  This plain was not above a 

hundred yards broad,  and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and,  at  the end of it, 

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 sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W.  and by S. sun, or thereabouts, 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, and twenty yards in its diameter from its beginning and  ending. 



In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving  them into the ground till they stood very firm 

like piles, the  biggest end being out of the ground above five feet and a half, and  sharpened on the top.  The 

two rows did not stand above six inches  from one another. 



Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and  laid them in rows, one upon another, within 

the circle, between  these  two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in  the inside,  leaning against 

them, about two feet and a half high,  like a spur to a  post; and this fence was so strong, that neither  man nor 

beast could  get into it or over it.  This cost me a great  deal of time and labour,  especially to cut the piles in the 

woods,  bring them to the place, and  drive them into the earth. 



The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, but by a  short ladder to go over the top; which 

ladder, when I was in, I  lifted over after me; and so I was completely fenced in and  fortified, as I thought, 

from all the world, and consequently slept  secure in the night, which otherwise I could not have done; though, 

as it appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this caution  from  the enemies that I apprehended danger 

from. 



Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my  riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and 

stores, of which you  have  the account above; and I made a large tent, which to preserve  me from  the rains 

that in one part of the year are very violent  there, I made  double - one smaller tent within, and one larger tent 

above it; and  covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I  had saved among  the sails. 



And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on  shore, but in a hammock, which was 

indeed a very good one, and  belonged to the mate of the ship. 



Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that  would spoil by the wet; and having thus 

enclosed all my goods, I  made  up the entrance, which till now I had left open, and so passed  and  repassed, as 

I said, by a short ladder. 



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When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and  bringing all the earth and stones that I dug 

down out through my  tent, I laid them up within my fence, in the nature of a terrace,  so  that it raised the 

ground within about a foot and a half; and  thus I  made me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like a 

cellar to  my house. 



It cost me much labour and many days before all these things were  brought to perfection; and therefore I must 

go back to some other  things which took up some of my thoughts.  At the same time it  happened, after I had 

laid my scheme for the setting up my tent,  and  making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick,  dark 

cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that a  great  clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of 

it.  I was not  so much  surprised with the lightning as I was with the thought  which darted  into my mind as 

swift as the lightning itself - Oh, my  powder!  My  very heart sank within me when I thought that, at one  blast, 

all my  powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence  only, but the  providing my food, as I thought, 

entirely depended.  I was nothing near  so anxious about my own danger, though, had the  powder took fire, I 

should never have known who had hurt me. 



Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was  over I laid aside all my works, my building 

and fortifying, and  applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and  to  keep it a little and 

a little in a parcel, in the hope that,  whatever  might come, it might not all take fire at once; and to  keep it so 

apart that it should not be possible to make one part  fire another.  I  finished this work in about a fortnight; and 

I  think my powder, which  in all was about two hundred and forty  pounds weight, was divided in  not less than 

a hundred parcels.  As  to the barrel that had been wet,  I did not apprehend any danger  from that; so I placed it 

in my new  cave, which, in my fancy, I  called my kitchen; and the rest I hid up  and down in holes among  the 

rocks, so that no wet might come to it,  marking very carefully  where I laid it. 



In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once at  least every day with my gun, as well to divert 

myself as to see if  I  could kill anything fit for food; and, as near as I could, to  acquaint  myself with what the 

island produced.  The first time I  went out, I  presently discovered that there were goats in the  island, which 

was a  great satisfaction 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 was the most difficult  thing in the world to come at  them; but I was 

not discouraged at  this, not doubting but I might now  and then shoot one, as it soon  happened; for after I had 

found their  haunts a little, I laid wait  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  terrible fright; but if they were feeding in  the valleys, 

and I was  upon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from  whence I concluded  that, by the position of their 

optics, their sight  was so directed  downward that they did not readily see objects that  were above  them; so 

afterwards I took 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 these creatures, I killed a she-goat,  which had a little kid by her, which she gave 

suck to, which   grieved  me heartily; for when the old one fell, the kid stood stock  still by  her, till I came and 

took her up; and not only so, but  when I carried  the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kid  followed me 

quite to  my enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam,  and took the kid in my  arms, and carried it over my 

pale, in hopes  to have bred it up tame;  but it would not eat; so I was forced to  kill it and eat it myself.  These 

two supplied me with flesh a  great while, for I ate sparingly,  and saved my provisions, my bread  especially, 

as much as possibly I  could. 



Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary to  provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel 

to burn: and what I did  for that, and also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I  made, I shall give 

a full account of in its place; but I must now  give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about 

living,  which, it may well be supposed, were not a few. 



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I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away  upon that island without being driven, as 

is said, by a violent  storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a great  way, viz. some 

hundreds 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 in this desolate place, and in this  desolate manner, I  should end my life.  The 

tears would run  plentifully down my face when  I made these reflections; and  sometimes I would expostulate 

with  myself why Providence should  thus completely ruin His creatures, and  render them so absolutely 

miserable; so without help, abandoned, 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, and to reprove me; and particularly 

one day, walking with  my gun in my hand by the seaside, I was very pensive upon the  subject  of my present 

condition, when reason, as it were,  expostulated with me  the other way, thus: "Well, you are in a  desolate 

condition, it is true; but, pray remember, where are the  rest of you?  Did not you  come, eleven of you in the 

boat?  Where  are the ten?  Why were they  not saved, and you lost?  Why were you  singled out?  Is it better to  be 

here or there?"  And then I  pointed to the sea.  All evils are to  be considered with the good  that is in them, and 

with what worse  attends them. 



Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my  subsistence, and what would have been my 

case if it had not  happened  (which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship  floated from the  place where 

she first struck, and was driven so  near to the shore that  I had time to get all these things out of  her; what 

would have been my  case, if I had been forced to have  lived in the condition in which I  at first came on shore, 

without  necessaries of life, or necessaries to  supply and procure them?  "Particularly," said I, aloud (though to 

myself), "what should I  have done without a gun, without ammunition,  without any tools to  make anything, 

or to work with, without clothes,  bedding, a tent,  or any manner of covering?" and that now I had all  these to 

sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself  in  such a manner as to live without my gun, when 

my ammunition was  spent: so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any  want, as long as I lived; 

for I considered from the beginning how I  would provide for the accidents that might happen, and for the 

time  that was to come, even not only after my ammunition should be  spent,  but even after my health and 

strength should decay. 



I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being  destroyed 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 lightened 

and thundered, as I observed just now. 



And now being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene  of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never 

heard of in the world  before, I shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its  order.  It was by my 

account the 30th of September, when, in the  manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island; 

when  the sun, being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost over  my head;  for I reckoned myself, by 

observation, to be in the  latitude of nine  degrees twenty-two minutes north of the line. 



After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my  thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of 

time for want of books,  and pen and ink, and should even forget the Sabbath days; but to  prevent this, I cut 

with my knife upon a large post, in capital  letters - and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the  shore 

where I first landed - "I came on shore here on the 30th  September  1659." 



Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my  knife, and every seventh notch was as long 

again as the rest, 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 reckoning  of time. 



In the next place, we are to observe that among the many things  which I brought out of the ship, in the several 

voyages which, as  above mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of less value,  but not at all less useful to 



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me, which I omitted setting down  before; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in  the 

captain's, mate's, gunner's and carpenter's keeping; three or  four compasses, some mathematical instruments, 

dials, perspectives,  charts, and books of navigation, all which I huddled together,  whether I might want them 

or no; also, I found three very good  Bibles, which came to me in my cargo from England, and which I had 

packed up among my things; some Portuguese books also; and among  them  two or three Popish 

prayer-books, and several other books, all  which I  carefully secured.  And I must not forget that we had in  the 

ship a  dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have  occasion to say  something in its place; for I 

carried both the cats  with me; and as  for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself,  and swam on shore  to 

me the day after I went on shore with my first  cargo, and was a  trusty servant to me many years; I wanted 

nothing  that he could fetch  me, nor any company that he could make up to  me; I only wanted to have  him talk 

to me, but that would not do.  As I observed before, I found  pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded  them to the 

utmost; and I shall  show that while my ink lasted, I  kept things very exact, but after  that was gone I could not, 

for I  could not make any ink by any means  that I could devise. 



And this put me in mind that I wanted many things notwithstanding  all that I had amassed together; and of 

these, ink was one; as also  a  spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,  pins,  and thread; 

as for linen, I soon learned to want that without  much  difficulty. 



This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it was  near a whole year before I had entirely 

finished my little pale, or  surrounded my habitation.  The piles, or stakes, which were as  heavy  as I could 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 days in cutting and bringing home one of  those posts, and a third  day in driving it into 

the ground; for  which purpose I got a heavy  piece of wood at first, but at last  bethought myself of one of the 

iron crows; which, however, though I  found it, made driving those  posts or piles very laborious and  tedious 

work.  But what need I have  been concerned at the  tediousness of anything I had to do, seeing I  had time 

enough to do  it in? nor had I any other employment, if that  had been over, at  least that I could foresee, except 

the ranging the  island to seek  for food, which I did, more or less, every day. 



I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the  circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the 

state of my  affairs  in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to  come after  me - for I was likely 

to have but few heirs - as to  deliver my  thoughts from daily poring over them, and afflicting my  mind; and as 

my reason began now to master my despondency, I began  to comfort  myself as well as I could, and to set the 

good against  the evil, that  I might have something to distinguish my case from  worse; and I stated  very 

impartially, like debtor and creditor, 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. 



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



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



Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship's crew, to be  spared from death; and He that miraculously 

saved me from death can  deliver me from this condition. 



Evil: I am divided from mankind - a solitaire; one banished from  human society. 



Good: But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place,  affording no sustenance. 



Evil: I have no clothes to cover me. 



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



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



Good: But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurt  me, as I saw on the coast of Africa; and 

what if I had been  shipwrecked there? 



Evil: I have no soul to speak to or relieve me. 



Good: But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the  shore, that I have got out as 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  scarce any condition in the world so 

miserable but there was  something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it;  and let this stand as 

a direction from the experience of the most  miserable of all conditions in this world: that we may always find 

in  it something to comfort 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  given over looking out to sea, to see if I 

could spy a ship - I  say,  giving over these things, I begun to apply myself to arrange  my way of  living, and to 

make things as easy to me as I could. 



I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the  side of a rock, surrounded with a strong 

pale of posts and cables:  but I might now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall  up  against it of turfs, 

about two feet thick on the outside; and  after  some time (I think it was a year and a half) I raised rafters  from 

it,  leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it with  boughs of trees,  and such things as I could get, to keep 

out the  rain; which I found at  some times of the year very violent. 



I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale,  and into the cave which I had made behind 

me.  But I must observe,  too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as  they  lay in no order, so 

they took up all my place; I had no room  to turn  myself: so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work  farther 

into the  earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, which  yielded easily to the  labour I bestowed on it: and so when 

I found  I was pretty safe as to  beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the  right hand, into the rock;  and then, 

turning to the right again,  worked quite out, and made me a  door to come out on the outside of  my pale or 

fortification.  This  gave me not only egress and  regress, as it was a back way to my tent  and to my storehouse, 

but  gave me room to store my goods. 



And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I  found I most wanted, particularly a chair 

and a table; for without  these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world;  I  could not write or 

eat, or do several things, with so much  pleasure  without a table: so I went to work.  And here I must needs 

observe,  that as reason is the substance and origin of the  mathematics, so by  stating and squaring everything 

by reason, and  by making the most  rational judgment of things, every man may be,  in time, master of  every 

mechanic art.  I had never handled a tool  in my life; and yet,  in time, by labour, application, and  contrivance, I 

found at last that  I wanted nothing but I could have  made it, especially if I had had  tools.  However, I made 

abundance  of things, even without tools; and  some with no more tools than an  adze and a hatchet, which 

perhaps were  never made that way before,  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 brought it  to be thin as a plank, and then dub it  smooth with my adze.  It is  true, by this method I 

could make but one  board out of a whole  tree; but this I had no remedy for but patience,  any more than I  had 

for the prodigious deal of time and labour which  it took me up  to make a plank or board: but my time or 

labour was  little worth,  and so it was as well employed one way as another. 



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However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in the  first place; and this I did out of the short 

pieces of boards that  I  brought on my raft from the ship.    But when I had wrought out  some  boards as above, I 

made large shelves, of the breadth of a  foot and a  half, one over another all along one side of my cave, to  lay 

all my  tools, nails and ironwork on; and, in a word, to  separate everything  at large into their places, that I 

might come  easily at them.  I  knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang  my guns and all  things that 

would hang up; so that, had my cave  been to be seen, it  looked like a general magazine of all necessary 

things; and had  everything so ready at my hand, that it was a great  pleasure to me to  see all my goods in such 

order, and especially 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 to labour, but in too much discomposure of mind; and  my  journal would 

have been full of many dull things; for example, I  must  have said thus: "30TH. - After I had got to shore, and 

escaped  drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance,  having  first vomited, with the great 

quantity of salt water which  had got  into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran  about the shore 

wringing my hands and beating my head and face,  exclaiming at my  misery, and crying out, 'I was undone, 

undone!'  till, tired and faint,  I was forced to lie down on the ground to  repose, but durst not sleep  for fear of 

being devoured." 



Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and  got all that I could out of her, yet I could not 

forbear getting up  to the top of a little mountain and looking out to sea, in hopes of  seeing a ship; then fancy 

at a vast distance I spied a sail, please  myself with the hopes of it, and then after looking steadily, till  I  was 

almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a  child,  and thus increase my misery by my folly. 



But having gotten over these things in some measure, and having  settled my household staff and habitation, 

made me a table and a  chair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my  journal; of which I 

shall here give you the copy (though in it will  be told all these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for 

having no more ink, I was forced to leave it off. 



                   CHAPTER V - BUILDS A HOUSE  - THE  JOURNAL 



SEPTEMBER 30, 1659. - I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being  shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in 

the offing, came on shore on  this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called "The Island of  Despair"; all the 

rest of the ship's company being drowned, and  myself almost dead. 



All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismal  circumstances I was brought to - viz. I had 

neither food, house,  clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to; and in despair of any relief,  saw nothing but death 

before me - either that I should be devoured  by  wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for 

want  of  food.  At the approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of  wild  creatures; but slept soundly, though it 

rained all night. 



OCTOBER 1. - In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship  had floated with the high tide, and was 

driven on shore again much  nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort, on one hand -  for,  seeing her 

set upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, if  the wind  abated, I might get on board, and get some food and 

necessaries out of  her for my relief - so, on the other hand, it  renewed my grief at the  loss of my comrades, 

who, I imagined, if we  had all stayed on board,  might have saved 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 have built us a boat 

out  of the ruins of the ship to have  carried us to some other part of  the world.  I spent great part of  this day in 

perplexing myself on  these things; but at length, seeing  the ship almost dry, I went  upon the sand as near as I 

could, and then  swam on board.  This day  also it continued raining, though with no  wind at all. 



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FROM THE 1ST OF OCTOBER TO THE 24TH. - All these days entirely  spent in many several voyages to 

get all I could out of the ship,  which I brought on shore every tide of flood upon rafts.  Much rain  also in the 

days, though with some intervals of fair weather; but  it  seems this was the rainy season. 



OCT. 20. - I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon it;  but, being in shoal water, and the things 

being chiefly heavy, I  recovered many 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  little harder 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 securing the 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  place to fix my habitation, greatly 

concerned to secure myself from  any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men.  Towards                    night, I 

fixed upon a proper place, under a rock, and marked out a             semicircle for my encampment; which I resolved to 

strengthen with a  work, wall, or fortification, made of double piles, lined within  with  cables, and without with 

turf. 



From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all my  goods to my new habitation, though some 

part of the time it rained  exceedingly hard. 



The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun,  to seek for some food, and discover the 

country; when I killed a  she-goat, and her kid followed me home, which I afterwards killed  also, because it 

would not feed. 



NOVEMBER 1. - I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the  first night; making it as large as I could, 

with stakes driven in  to  swing my hammock upon. 



NOV. 2. - I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of  timber which made my rafts, and with them 

formed a fence round me,  a  little within the place I had marked out for my fortification. 



NOV. 3. - I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks,  which were very good food.  In the 

afternoon went to work to make  me  a table. 



NOV. 4. - This morning I began to order my times of work, of going  out with my gun, time of sleep, and 

time of diversion - viz. every  morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did  not rain; 

then employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock;  then eat what I had to live on; and from twelve to 

two I lay down  to  sleep, the weather being excessively hot; and then, in the  evening, to  work again.  The 

working part of this day and of the  next were wholly  employed in making my table, for I was yet but a  very 

sorry workman,  though time and necessity made me a complete  natural mechanic soon  after, as I believe they 

would do any one  else. 



NOV. 5. - This day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and killed a  wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her 

flesh good for nothing;  every  creature that I killed I took of the skins and preserved  them.  Coming  back by 

the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls,  which I did not  understand; but was surprised, and almost 

frightened, with two or  three seals, which, while I was gazing at,  not well knowing what they  were, got into 

the sea, and escaped me  for that time. 



NOV. 6. - After my morning walk I went to work with my table again,  and finished it, though not to my 

liking; nor was it long before I  learned to mend it. 



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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) 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 in the making I  pulled it in pieces several times. 



NOTE. - I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my mark  for them on my post, I forgot which 

was which. 



NOV. 13. - This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, and  cooled the earth; but it was accompanied 

with terrible thunder and  lightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder.  As  soon as it was 

over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder  into as  many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in 

danger. 



NOV. 14, 15, 16. - These three days I spent in making little square  chests, 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  as secure and 

remote from one another as possible.  On one  of these  three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat, but 

I knew not  what to call it. 



NOV. 17. - This day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock, to  make room for my further conveniency. 



NOTE. - Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work - viz. a  pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or 

basket; so I desisted from  my  work, and began to consider how to supply that want, and make me  some  tools. 

As for the pickaxe, I made use of the iron crows,  which were  proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing 

was a  shovel or spade;  this was so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I  could do nothing  effectually 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  that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils 

they call the iron-  tree,  for its exceeding hardness.  Of this, with great labour, and  almost  spoiling my 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 my having no other way, made me a long  while upon  this machine, for I worked it 

effectually by little and  little into  the form of a shovel or spade; the handle exactly  shaped like ours in 

England, only that the board part having no  iron shod upon it at  bottom, it would not last me so long; 

however,  it served well enough  for the uses which I had occasion to put it  to; but never was a  shovel, I 

believe, made after that fashion, or  so long in making. 



I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow.  A  basket I could not make by any means, having 

no such things as  twigs  that would bend to make wicker-ware - at least, none yet  found out;  and as to a 

wheelbarrow, I fancied I could make all but  the wheel; but  that I had no notion of; neither did I know how to 

go about it;  besides, I had no possible way to make the iron  gudgeons for the  spindle or axis of the wheel to 

run in; so I gave  it over, and so, for  carrying away the earth which I dug out of the  cave, I made me a thing 

like a hod which the labourers carry mortar  in when they serve the  bricklayers.  This was not so difficult to  me 

as the making the  shovel: and yet this and the shovel, and the  attempt which I made in  vain to make a 

wheelbarrow, took me up no      less than four days - I mean   always excepting my morning walk with  my gun, 

which I seldom failed,  and very seldom failed also bringing  home something fit to eat. 



NOV. 23. - My other work having now stood still, because of my  making these tools, when they were 

finished I went on, and working  every day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days  entirely in 

widening and deepening my cave, that it might hold my  goods commodiously. 



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 my lodging, I kept to  the tent; except 

that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it  rained so hard that I could not keep myself dry, which caused 



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me  afterwards to cover all 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 of trees, like a thatch. 



DECEMBER 10. - I began now to think my cave or vault finished, when  on a sudden (it seems I had made it 

too large) a great quantity of  earth fell down from the top on one side; so much that, in short,  it  frighted me, 

and not without reason, too, for if I had been  under it,  I had never wanted a gravedigger.  I had now a great 

deal  of 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 I might be  sure no more would come down. 



DEC. 11. - This day I went to work with it accordingly, and got two  shores or posts pitched upright to the 

top, with two pieces of  boards  across over each post; this I finished the next day; and  setting more  posts up 

with boards, in about a week more I had the  roof secured, and  the posts, standing in rows, served me for 

partitions to part off the  house. 



DEC. 17. - From this day to the 20th I placed shelves, and knocked  up nails on the posts, to hang everything 

up that could be hung up;  and now I began to be in some order within doors. 



DEC. 20. - Now I carried everything into the cave, and began to  furnish my house, and set up some pieces of 

boards like a dresser,  to  order my victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with  me;  also, I made me 

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, and  pleasanter. 



DEC. 27. - Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that I caught  it and led it home in a string; when I had 

it at home, I bound and  splintered up its leg, which was broke. 



N.B. - I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew well  and as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so 

long, it grew tame,  and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away.  This  was the first time 

that I entertained a thought of breeding up  some  tame creatures, 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  no stirring abroad, except in the evening, 

for food; this time I  spent in putting all my things in order within doors. 



JANUARY 1. - Very hot still: but I went abroad early and late with  my gun, and lay still in the middle of the 

day.  This evening,  going  farther into the valleys which lay towards the centre of the  island, I  found there were 

plenty of goats, though exceedingly shy,  and hard to  come at; however, I resolved to try if I could not  bring 

my dog to  hunt them down. 



JAN. 2. - Accordingly, the next day I went out with my dog, and set  him upon the goats, but I was mistaken, 

for they all faced about  upon  the dog, 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  my being attacked by somebody, I resolved 

to make very thick and  strong. 



N.B. - This wall being described before, I purposely omit what was  said in the journal; it is sufficient to 

observe, that I was no  less  time than from the 2nd of January to the 14th of April  working,  finishing, and 



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perfecting this wall, though it was no more  than about  twenty-four yards in length, being a half-circle from 

one place in the  rock to another place, about eight yards from it,  the door of the cave  being in the centre 

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  perfectly secure till this wall was finished; and it is scarce  credible what 

inexpressible labour everything was done with,  especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving 

them  into  the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have  done. 



When this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced, with a  turf wall raised up close to it, I perceived 

myself that if any  people were to come on shore there, they would not perceive  anything  like a habitation; 

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 these   walks of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found  a  kind of 

wild pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree,     but  rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the 

rocks; and taking  some  young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so;  but when  they grew 

older they flew away, which perhaps was at first  for want of  feeding them, for I had nothing to give them; 

however,  I frequently  found their nests, and got their young ones, which  were very good  meat.  And now, in 

the managing my household      affairs, I found myself  wanting in many things, which I thought at  first it was 

impossible for  me to make; as, indeed, with some of  them it was: for instance, I  could never make a cask to 

be hooped.  I had a small runlet or two, as  I observed before; but I could  never arrive at the capacity of 

making  one by them, though I spent  many weeks about it; I could neither put  in the heads, or join the  staves 

so true to one another as to make  them hold water; so I gave  that also over.  In the next place, I was  at a great 

loss for  candles; so that as soon as ever it was dark,  which was generally  by seven o'clock, I was obliged to 

go to bed.  I  remembered the  lump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African  adventure;  but I had 

none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that  when I     had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little 

dish  made  of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of  some  oakum, I made me a lamp; and 

this gave me light, though not a  clear, steady light, like a candle.  In the middle of all my  labours  it happened 

that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag  which, as  I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the 

feeding of poultry  - not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose,  when the ship came  from Lisbon.  The little 

remainder of corn that  had been in the bag  was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothing  in the bag but 

husks  and dust; and being willing to have the bag  for some other use (I  think it was to put powder in, when I 

divided  it for fear of the  lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks  of corn out of it on  one side of my 

fortification, under the rock. 



It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I  threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not 

so much as  remembering that I had thrown anything there, when, about a month  after, or thereabouts, 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 about ten or 

twelve ears come  out, which  were perfect green barley, of the same kind as our  European - nay, as  our 

English barley. 



It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my  thoughts on this occasion.  I had hitherto 

acted upon no religious  foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my  head, nor had 

entertained any sense of anything 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 for the world.  But  after I  saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not  proper 

for  corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there,  it startled me  strangely, and I began to suggest that 

God had  miraculously caused His  grain to grow without any help of seed  sown, and that it was so  directed 

purely for my sustenance on that  wild, miserable place. 



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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes,  and I began to bless myself that such a 

prodigy of nature should  happen upon my account; and this was the more strange to me,  because  I saw near it 

still, 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 seen it grow in Africa when I was  ashore there. 



I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my  support, but not doubting that there was 

more in the place, I went  all over that part of the island, where I had been before, peering  in  every corner, and 

under every rock, to see for more of it, but I  could  not find any.  At last it occurred to my thoughts that I  shook 

a bag  of chickens' meat out in that place; and then the  wonder began to  cease; and I must confess my 

religious thankfulness  to God's  providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering that  all this was  nothing 

but what was common; though I ought to have  been as thankful  for so strange and unforeseen a providence as 

if  it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence to  me, that  should order or appoint that ten 

or twelve grains of corn  should  remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest,  as if it  had been 

dropped from heaven; as also, that I should throw  it out in  that particular place, where, it being in the shade of 

a  high rock, it  sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it  anywhere else at  that time, it had been burnt 

up and destroyed. 



I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their  season, which was about the end of June; and, 

laying up every corn,  I  resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some  quantity  sufficient to 

supply me with bread.  But it was not till  the fourth  year that I could allow myself the least grain of this  corn 

to eat,  and even then but sparingly, as I shall say  afterwards, in its order;  for I lost all that I sowed the first 

season by not observing the  proper time; for I sowed it just before  the dry season, so that it  never came up at 

all, at least not as it  would have done; of which in  its place. 



Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks  of rice, which I preserved with the same care 

and for the same use,  or to the same purpose - to make me bread, or rather food; for I  found ways to cook it 

without baking, though I did that also after  some time. 



But to return to my Journal. 



I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall  done; and the 14th of April I closed it up, 

contriving to go into  it,  not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might  be no  sign on the outside 

of my habitation. 



APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the  top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it 

down in the inside.  This was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough,  and nothing could 

come at me from without, unless it could first  mount my wall. 



The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had all  my labour overthrown at once, and myself 

killed.  The case was  thus:  As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at the  entrance into  my cave, I was 

terribly frighted with a most  dreadful, surprising  thing indeed; for all on a sudden I found the  earth come 

crumbling  down from the roof of my cave, and from the  edge of the hill over my  head, and two of the posts I 

had set up in  the cave cracked in a  frightful manner.  I was heartily scared; but  thought nothing of what  was 

really the cause, only thinking that  the top of my cave was fallen  in, as some of it had done before:  and for 

fear I should be buried in  it I ran forward to my ladder,  and not thinking myself safe there  neither, I got over 

my wall for  fear of the pieces of the hill, which  I expected might roll down  upon me.  I had no sooner stepped 

do  ground, than I plainly saw it  was a terrible earthquake, for the  ground I stood on shook three  times at about 

eight minutes' distance,  with three such shocks as  would have overturned the strongest building  that could be 

supposed  to have stood on the earth; and a great piece  of the top of a rock  which stood about half a mile from 

me next the  sea fell down with  such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my  life.  I perceived  also the very 

sea was put into violent motion by  it; and I believe  the shocks were stronger under the water than on the 



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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  or stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach  sick, like  one that was 

tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling  of the rock  awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from the 

stupefied condition I  was in, filled me with horror; and I thought  of nothing then but the  hill falling upon my 

tent and all my  household goods, and burying all  at once; and this sunk my very  soul within me a second 

time. 



After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I  began to take courage; and yet I had not 

heart enough to go over my  wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the  ground greatly cast 

down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do.  All this while I had not the least serious religious thought; 

nothing  but the common "Lord have mercy upon me!" and when it was  over that  went away too. 



While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as if  it would rain.  Soon after that the wind arose 

by little and  little,  so that in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadful  hurricane;  the sea was all on a 

sudden covered over with foam and  froth; the  shore was covered with the breach of the water, the  trees were 

torn up  by the roots, and a terrible storm it was.  This  held about three  hours, and then began to abate; and in 

two hours  more it was quite  calm, and began to rain very hard.  All this  while I sat upon the  ground very much 

terrified and dejected; when  on a sudden it came into  my thoughts, that these winds and rain  being the 

consequences of the  earthquake, the earthquake itself was  spent and over, and I might  venture into my cave 

again.  With this  thought my spirits began to  revive; and the rain also helping to  persuade me, I went in and 

sat  down in my tent.  But the rain was  so violent that my tent was ready  to be beaten down with it; and I  was 

forced to go into my cave, though  very much afraid and uneasy,  for fear it 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 the 

water go out, which would  else have flooded my  cave.  After I had been in my cave for some time,  and found 

still  no more shocks of the earthquake follow, 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 a small sup of rum;  which, however, I 

did then and always very sparingly, knowing I  could  have no more when that was gone.  It continued raining 

all  that night  and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir  abroad; but  my mind being more 

composed, I began to think of what I  had best do;  concluding that if the island was subject to these 

earthquakes, there  would be no living for me in a cave, but I must  consider of building a  little hut in an open 

place which I might  surround with a wall, as I  had done here, and so make myself secure  from wild beasts or 

men; for  I concluded, if I stayed where I was,  I should certainly one time or  other be buried alive. 



With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place  where it stood, which was just under the 

hanging precipice of the  hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall  upon my tent; and I 

spent the two next days, being the 19th and  20th  of April, in contriving where and how to remove my 

habitation.  The  fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in  quiet;  and yet the apprehension 

of lying abroad without any fence  was almost  equal to it; but still, when I looked about, and saw how 

everything  was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and  how safe from  danger, it made me very 

loath to remove.  In the  meantime, it occurred  to me that it would require a vast deal of  time for me to do this, 

and  that I must be contented to venture  where I was, till I had formed a  camp for myself, and had secured  it 

so as to remove to it.  So with  this resolution I composed  myself for a time, and resolved that I  would go to 

work with all  speed to build me a wall with piles and  cables, in a circle,  as before, and set my tent up in it 

when it was  finished; but that  I would venture to stay where I was till it was  finished, and fit  to remove.  This 

was the 21st. 



APRIL 22. - The next morning I begin to consider of means to put  this resolve into execution; but I was at a 

great loss about my  tools.  I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we  carried the hatchets for 

traffic with the Indians); but with much  chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of  notches, 



CHAPTER V - BUILDS A HOUSE  - THE  JOURNAL                                                                         38 


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and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn  it and grind  my tools too.  This cost me as much 

thought as a  statesman would have  bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a  judge upon the life and  death 

of a man.  At length I contrived a  wheel with a string, to turn  it with my foot, that I might have  both my hands 

at liberty.  NOTE. -  I had never seen any such thing  in England, or at least, not to take  notice how it was 

done, though  since I have observed, it is very  common there; besides that, my  grindstone 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, my machine for turning my 

grindstone performing very well. 



APRIL 30. - Having perceived my bread had been low a great while,  now I 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 towards the sea side, the tide  being low, I saw something lie on the shore 

bigger than ordinary,  and  it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small  barrel, and  two or three 

pieces of the wreck of the ship, which  were driven on  shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the 

wreck itself, I  thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water  than it used to do.  I examined the barrel which 

was driven on  shore, and soon found it  was a barrel of gunpowder; but it had  taken water, and the powder 

was  caked as hard as a stone; however,  I rolled it farther on shore for  the present, and went on upon the  sands, 

as near as I could to the  wreck of the ship, to look for  more. 



                   CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN 



WHEN I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed.  The  forecastle, which lay before buried in 

sand, was heaved up at least   six feet, and the stern, which was broke in pieces and parted from  the rest by the 

force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging  her, was tossed as it were up, and cast on one side; and the 

sand  was  thrown so high on that side next her stern, that whereas there  was a  great place of water before, so 

that I could not come within   a quarter  of a mile of the wreck without swimming I could now walk  quite up to 

her when the tide was out.  I was surprised with this  at first, but  soon concluded it must be done by the 

earthquake; and  as by this  violence the ship was more broke open than formerly, so  many things  came daily 

on shore, which the sea had loosened, and  which the winds  and water rolled by degrees to the land. 



This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my  habitation, and I busied myself mightily, 

that day especially, in  searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I found  nothing was to be 

expected of that kind, for all the inside of the  ship was choked up with sand.  However, as I had learned not to 

despair of anything, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I  could of the ship, concluding that everything 

I could get from her  would be of some use or other to me. 



MAY 3. - I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through,  which I thought held some of the upper 

part or quarter-deck  together,  and when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as  well as I  could from 

the side which lay highest; but the tide  coming in, I was  obliged to give over 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 a young dolphin.  I had made me a long line of some rope-  yarn, but I had no 

hooks; 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 brought  three great fir planks off from the 

decks, which I tied together,  and  made to float on shore when the tide of flood came on. 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                        39 


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MAY 6. - Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her and  other pieces of ironwork.  Worked very 

hard, and came home very  much  tired, and had thoughts of giving it over. 



MAY 7. - Went to the wreck again, not with an intent to work, but  found the weight of the wreck had broke 

itself down, the beams  being  cut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and  the  inside of the hold 

lay so open that I could see into it; but it  was  almost full of water and sand. 



MAY 8. - Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up  the deck, which lay now quite clear of 

the water or sand.  I  wrenched  open two planks, and brought them on shore also with the  tide.  I left  the iron 

crow in the wreck for next day. 



MAY 9. - Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the  body of the wreck, and felt several casks, 

and loosened them with  the  crow, but could not break them up.  I felt also a roll of  English  lead, and could stir 

it, but it was too heavy to remove. 



MAY 10-14. - Went every day to the wreck; and got a great many  pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, 

and two or three  hundredweight of iron. 



MAY 15. - I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece  off the roll of lead by placing the edge of 

one hatchet and driving  it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the  water, I could not make 

any blow to drive the hatchet. 



MAY 16. - It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared  more broken by the force of the water; but 

I stayed so long in the  woods, to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to  the wreck that day. 



MAY 17. - I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great  distance, near two miles off me, but 

resolved to see what they  were,  and found 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  hard labour I loosened some things so 

much with the crow, that the    first flowing 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 but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which 

had  some Brazil pork  in it; but the salt water and the sand had spoiled  it.  I continued  this work every day to 

the 15th of June, except  the time necessary to  get food, which I always appointed, during  this part of my 

employment,  to be when the tide was up, that I  might be ready when it was ebbed  out; and by this time I had 

got  timber and plank and ironwork enough  to have built a good boat, if  I had known how; and also I got, at 

several times and in several  pieces, near one hundredweight of the  sheet lead. 



JUNE 16. - Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise or  turtle.  This was the first I had seen, which, 

it seems, was only  my  misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I  happened to be on the 

other side of the island, I might have had  hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had 

paid dear enough for them. 



JUNE 17. - I spent in cooking the turtle.   I found in her three-  score eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that 

time, the most savoury  and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh,  but  of goats and fowls, 

since I landed in this horrid place. 



JUNE 18. - Rained all day, and I stayed within.  I thought at this  time the rain felt cold, and I was something 

chilly; which I knew  was  not usual in that latitude. 



JUNE 19. - Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been  cold. 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                         40 


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JUNE 20. - No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and  feverish. 



JUNE 21. - Very ill; frighted almost to death with the  apprehensions of my sad condition - to be sick, and no 

help.  Prayed  to God, for the first time since the storm off Hull, but  scarce knew  what I said, or why, my 

thoughts being all confused. 



JUNE 22. - A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of  sickness. 



JUNE 22. - Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent  headache. 



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  found myself very weak.  However, I 

killed a she-goat, and with  much  difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate, I  would fain  have 

stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot. 



JUNE 27. - The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day, and  neither ate nor drank.  I was ready to 

perish for thirst; but so  weak, I had 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 so ignorant that I knew not what to say; only I 

lay and  cried, "Lord, look upon me!  Lord, pity me!  Lord, have mercy upon  me!"  I suppose I did nothing else 

for two or three hours; till,  the  fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not wake till far in  the  night.  When I 

awoke, I found myself much refreshed, but weak,  and  exceeding thirsty.  However, as I had no water in my 

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 a  man descend from a great black  cloud, in a bright flame of fire,  and 

light upon the ground.  He was  all over as bright as a flame,  so that I could but just bear to look  towards him; 

his countenance  was most inexpressibly dreadful,  impossible for words to describe.  When he stepped 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, to my apprehension, as if it  had been filled with  flashes of fire.  He was no sooner landed upon  the 

earth, but he  moved forward towards me, with a long spear or  weapon in his hand,  to kill me; and when he 

came to a rising ground,  at some distance,  he spoke to me - or I heard a voice so terrible that  it is      impossible 

to express the terror of it.  All that I can say I  understood was this: "Seeing all these things have not brought 

thee  to repentance, now thou shalt die;" at which words, I thought 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  be able 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 is it any 

more possible to describe the impression  that remained  upon my mind when I awaked, and found it was but a 

dream. 



I had, alas! no divine knowledge.  What I had received by the good  instruction of my father was then worn out 

by an uninterrupted  series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant  conversation with none 

but such as were, like myself, wicked and  profane to the last degree.  I do not remember that I had, in all  that 

time, one thought that so much as tended either to looking  upwards towards God, or inwards towards a 

reflection upon my own  ways; but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or  conscience of evil, 

had entirely overwhelmed me; and I was all that  the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our 

common  sailors can be supposed to be; not having the least sense, either  of  the fear of God in danger, or of 

thankfulness to God in  deliverance. 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                             41 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the  more easily believed when I shall add, that 

through all the variety  of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had so much  as  one thought of it 

being the hand of God, or that it was a just  punishment for my sin - my rebellious behaviour against my 

father -  or my present sins, which were great - or so much as a punishment  for  the general course of my 

wicked life.  When I was on the  desperate  expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never had so  much as 

one  thought of what would 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 well from voracious creatures as  cruel savages.  But  I 

was merely thoughtless of a God or a  Providence, acted like a mere  brute, from the principles of nature,  and 

by the dictates of common  sense only, and, indeed, hardly that.  When I was delivered and taken  up at sea by 

the Portugal captain,  well used, and dealt justly and  honourably with, as well as  charitably, I had not the least 

thankfulness in my thoughts.  When,  again, I was shipwrecked, ruined,  and in danger of drowning on this 

island, I was as far from remorse,  or looking on it as a judgment.  I only said to myself often, that I   was an 

unfortunate dog, and  born to be always miserable. 



It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my ship's  crew drowned and myself spared, I was 

surprised with a kind of  ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace of God  assisted, might 

have come up to true thankfulness; but it ended  where  it began, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as I may 

say,  being glad  I was alive, without the least reflection upon the  distinguished  goodness of the hand which 

had preserved me, and had  singled me out to  be preserved when all the rest were destroyed, or  an inquiry why 

Providence had been thus merciful unto me.  Even  just the same common  sort of joy which seamen generally 

have, after  they are got safe  ashore from a shipwreck, which they drown all 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, on due 

consideration,  made sensible of my condition,  how I was cast on this dreadful place,  out of the reach of 

human  kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect  of redemption, as soon  as I saw but a prospect of living and 

that I  should not starve and  perish for hunger, all the sense of my  affliction wore off; and I  began to be very 

easy, applied myself to  the works proper for my  preservation and supply, and was far enough  from being 

afflicted at  my condition, as a judgment from heaven, or as  the hand of God  against me: these were thoughts 

which very seldom  entered 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 as ever that 

part of the thought was removed, all  the  impression that was raised from it wore off also, as I have  noted 

already.  Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more  terrible  in its nature, or more immediately 

directing to the  invisible Power  which alone directs such things, yet no sooner was  the first fright  over, but 

the impression it had 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 His hand -  than if I had been in the most  prosperous 

condition of life.  But  now, when I began to be sick, and a  leisurely view of the miseries  of death came to 

place itself before  me; when my spirits began to  sink under the burden of a strong  distemper, and nature was 

exhausted with the violence of the fever;  conscience, that had  slept so long, began to awake, and I began to 

reproach myself with  my past life, in which I had so evidently, by  uncommon wickedness,  provoked the 

justice of God to lay me under  uncommon strokes, and  to deal with me in so vindictive a manner.  These 

reflections  oppressed me for the second or third day of my  distemper; and in  the violence, as well of the fever 

as of the  dreadful reproaches of  my conscience, extorted some words from me like  praying to God,  though I 

cannot say they were either a prayer attended  with desires  or with hopes: it was rather the voice of mere fright 

and  distress.  My thoughts were confused, the convictions great upon my  mind, and  the horror of dying in 

such a miserable condition raised  vapours  into my head with the mere apprehensions; and in these hurries  of 

my soul I knew not what my tongue might express.  But it was rather  exclamation, such as, "Lord, what a 

miserable creature am I!  If I  should be sick, I shall certainly die for want of help; and what  will  become of 

me!"  Then the tears burst out of my eyes, and I  could say  no more for a good while.  In this interval the good 

advice of my  father came to my mind, and presently his prediction,  which I  mentioned at the beginning of 

this story - viz. that if I  did take  this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would  have leisure  hereafter 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                          42 


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to reflect upon having neglected his 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 justice has  overtaken me,  and I have none to help or 

hear me.  I rejected the  voice of  Providence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or  station of  life 

wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I  would neither see  it myself nor learn to know the blessing of 

it  from my parents.  I  left them to mourn over my folly, and now I am  left to mourn under the  consequences of 

it.  I abused their help  and assistance, who would  have lifted me in the world, and would  have made 

everything easy to  me; and now I have difficulties to  struggle with, too great for even  nature itself to support, 

and no  assistance, no help, no comfort, no  advice."  Then I cried out,  "Lord, be my help, for I am in great 

distress."  This was the first  prayer, if I may call it so, that I had  made for many years. 



But to return to my Journal. 



JUNE 28. - Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had,  and the fit being entirely off, I got up; 

and though the fright and  terror of my dream was very great, yet I considered that the fit of  the ague would 

return again the next day, and now was my time to  get  something to refresh and support myself when I should 

be ill;  and the  first thing I did, I filled a large square case-bottle with  water, and  set it upon my table, in reach 

of my bed; and to take  off the chill or  aguish disposition of the water, I put about a  quarter of a pint of  rum 

into it, 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 sense 

of my miserable  condition, dreading, the  return of my distemper the next day.  At  night I made my supper of 

three of the turtle's eggs, which I  roasted in the ashes, and ate, as  we call it, in the shell, and  this was the first 

bit of meat I had  ever asked God's blessing to,  that I could remember, in my whole life.  After I had eaten I 

tried  to walk, but found myself so weak that I  could hardly carry a gun,  for I never went out without that; so I 

went  but a little way, and  sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the  sea, which was just  before me, and 

very calm and smooth.  As I sat  here some such  thoughts as these occurred to me: What is this earth  and sea, 

of  which I have seen so much?  Whence is it produced?  And  what am I,  and all the other creatures wild and 

tame, human and  brutal?  Whence are we?  Sure we are all made by some secret Power, 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, 

but  then  it came on strangely, if God has made all these things, He  guides and  governs them all, and all things 

that concern them; for  the Power that  could make all things must certainly have power to  guide and direct 

them.  If so, nothing can happen in the great  circuit of His works,  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 His appointment, He has appointed all this to befall me.  Nothing occurred to 

my thought to contradict any of these  conclusions, and therefore it rested upon me with the greater  force,  that 

it must needs be that God had appointed all this to  befall me;  that I was brought into this miserable 

circumstance by  His direction,  He having the sole power, not of me only, but of  everything that  happened in 

the world.  Immediately it followed:  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 had  blasphemed, 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 thou wert not long ago destroyed?  Why wert thou not 

drowned in Yarmouth Roads; killed in the fight when  the ship was  taken by the Sallee man-of-war; 

devoured by the wild  beasts on the  coast of Africa; or drowned HERE, when all the crew  perished but 

thyself?  Dost THOU ask, what have I done?"  I was struck  dumb with  these reflections, as one astonished, and 

had not a word to  say -  no, not to answer to myself, but rose up pensive and sad, walked  back to my retreat, 

and went up over my wall, as if I had been  going  to bed; but my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no 

inclination  to sleep; so I sat down in my chair, and lighted my  lamp, for it began  to be dark.  Now, as the 

apprehension of the  return of my distemper  terrified me very much, it occurred to my  thought that the 

Brazilians  take no physic but their tobacco for  almost all distempers, and I had  a piece of a roll of tobacco in 

one of the chests, which was quite  cured, and some also that was  green, and not quite cured. 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                            43 


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I went, directed by Heaven no doubt; for in this chest I found a  cure both for soul and body.  I opened the 

chest, and found what I  looked for, the tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay there  too, I took out one 

of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and  which  to this time I had not found leisure or inclination to look 

into.  I say, I took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco  with me to  the table.  What use to make of the 

tobacco I knew not,  in my  distemper, or whether it was good for it or no: but I tried  several  experiments with 

it, as if I was resolved it should hit one  way or  other.  I first took a piece of leaf, and chewed it in my  mouth, 

which, indeed, at first almost stupefied my brain, the  tobacco being  green and strong, and that I had not been 

much used  to.  Then I took  some and steeped it an hour or 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 close over 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 

up the Bible and began to read; but  my head was too much disturbed  with the tobacco to bear reading, at  least 

at that time; only,  having opened the book casually, the first  words that occurred to  me were these, "Call on 

Me in the day of  trouble, and I will  deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."  These  words were very  apt to my 

case, and made some impression upon my  thoughts at the  time of reading them, though not so much as they 

did  afterwards;  for, as for being DELIVERED, the word had no sound, as I  may say,  to me; the thing was so 

remote, so impossible in my  apprehension of  things, that I began to say, as the children of Israel  did when 

they were promised flesh to eat, "Can God spread a table in  the  wilderness?" so I began to say, "Can God 

Himself deliver me from  this place?"  And as it was not for many years that any hopes  appeared, this 

prevailed very often upon my thoughts; but, however,  the words made a great impression upon me, and I 

mused upon them  very  often.  It grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said,  dozed my  head so much that I 

inclined to sleep; so I left my lamp  burning in  the cave, lest I should want anything in the night, and  went to 

bed.  But before I lay down, I did what I never had done in  all my life - I  kneeled down, and prayed to God to 

fulfil the  promise to me, that if I  called upon Him in the day of trouble, He  would deliver me.  After my 

broken and imperfect prayer was over, I  drank the rum in which I had  steeped the tobacco, which was so 

strong and rank of the tobacco that  I could scarcely get it down;  immediately upon this I went to bed.  I  found 

presently it flew up  into my head violently; but I fell into a  sound sleep, and waked no  more till, by the sun, it 

must necessarily  be near three o'clock in  the afternoon the next day - nay, to this  hour I am partly of  opinion 

that I slept 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 in the days of the week, as it  appeared  some years after I had done; for 

if I had lost it by crossing  and  recrossing the line, I should have lost more than one day; but  certainly I lost a 

day in my account, and never knew which way.  Be  that, however, one way or the other, when I awaked I 

found myself  exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful; when I  got  up I was stronger than I 

was the day before, and my stomach  better,  for I was hungry; and, in short, I had no fit the next day,  but 

continued much altered for the better.  This was the 29th. 



The 30th was my well day, of course, and I went abroad with my gun,  but did not care to travel too far.  I 

killed a sea-fowl or two,  something like a brandgoose, and brought them home, but was not  very  forward to 

eat 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 good the day before - the tobacco steeped in  rum; only  I did not take 

so much as before, nor did I chew any of     the leaf, or  hold my head over the smoke; however, I was not so 

well the next day,  which was the first of July, as I hoped I should  have been; for I had  a little spice of the cold 

fit, but it was not  much. 



JULY 2. - I renewed the medicine all the three ways; and dosed  myself with 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 my full 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 of my ever expecting it;  but as I was 

discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred to  my mind that I  pored so much upon my deliverance 

from the main  affliction, that I  disregarded the deliverance I had received, and  I was as it were made  to ask 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                           44 


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                                                  Robinson Crusoe 



myself such questions as these - viz.  Have I not been  delivered, and wonderfully too, from sickness -  from 

the most  distressed condition that could be, and that was so  frightful to me?  and what notice had I taken of it? 

Had I done my  part?  God had  delivered me, but I had not glorified Him - that is  to say, I had not  owned and 

been thankful for that as a  deliverance; and how could I  expect greater deliverance?  This  touched my heart 

very much; and  immediately I knelt down and gave  God thanks aloud for my recovery  from my sickness. 



JULY 4. - In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the New  Testament, I began seriously to read it, 

and imposed upon myself to      read a while every morning and every night; not tying myself to the  number of 

chapters, but long as my thoughts should engage me.  It  was  not long after I set seriously to this work till I 

found my  heart more  deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my  past life.  The impression of 

my dream revived; and the words, "All  these things  have not brought thee to repentance," ran seriously 

through my    thoughts.  I was earnestly begging of God to give me  repentance, when  it happened 

providentially, the very day, that,  reading the Scripture,  I came to these words: "He is exalted a  Prince and a 

Saviour, to give  repentance and to give remission."  I  threw down the book; and with my  heart as well as my 

hands lifted  up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of  joy, I cried out aloud,  "Jesus, thou son of David!  Jesus, thou 

exalted Prince and Saviour!  give me repentance!"  This was the first  time I could say, in the  true sense of the 

words, that I prayed in all  my life; for now I  prayed with a sense of my condition, and a true  Scripture view of 

hope, founded on the encouragement of the Word of  God; and from  this time, I may say, I began to hope that 

God would  hear me. 



Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call on Me, and  I will deliver thee," in a different 

sense from what I had ever  done  before; for then I had no notion of anything being called  DELIVERANCE, 

but my being delivered from the captivity I was in;  for though I was  indeed at large in the place, yet the island 

was  certainly a prison to  me, and that in the worse sense in the world.  But now I learned to  take it in another 

sense: now I looked back  upon my past life with  such horror, and my sins appeared so  dreadful, that my soul 

sought  nothing of God but deliverance from  the load of guilt that bore down  all my comfort.  As for my 

solitary life, it was nothing.  I did not  so much as pray to be  delivered from it or think of it; it was all of  no 

consideration in  comparison to this.  And I add this part here, to  hint to whoever  shall read it, that whenever 

they come to a true sense  of things,  they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing  than 

deliverance from affliction. 



But, leaving this part, I return to my Journal. 



My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my  way of living, yet much easier to my 

mind: and my thoughts being  directed, by a constant reading the Scripture and praying to God,  to  things of a 

higher nature, I had a great deal of comfort within,  which     till now I knew nothing of; also, my health and 

strength  returned, I  bestirred myself to furnish myself with everything that  I wanted, and  make my way of 

living as regular as I could. 



From the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed in walking  about with my gun in my hand, a little 

and a little at a time, as a  man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness; for  it is hardly 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 which had never cured an ague before; neither can  I recommend  it to any to 

practise, by this experiment: and though  it did carry off  the fit, yet it rather contributed to weakening  me; for I 

had frequent  convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some  time.  I learned from it  also this, in particular, that 

being  abroad in the rainy season was  the most pernicious thing to my  health that could be, especially in  those 

rains which came attended  with storms and hurricanes of wind;  for as the rain which came in  the dry season 

was almost always  accompanied with such storms, so I  found that rain was much more  dangerous than the 

rain which fell in  September and October. 



CHAPTER VI - ILL AND  CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN                                                                            45 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



                      CHAPTER VII - AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE 



I HAD now been in this unhappy island above ten months.  All  possibility of deliverance from this condition 

seemed to be  entirely  taken from me; and I firmly believe that no human shape  had ever set  foot upon that 

place.  Having now secured my  habitation, as I thought,  fully to my mind, I had a great desire to  make a more 

perfect  discovery of the island, and to 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  survey of the island itself.  I went up the creek 

first, where, as  I  hinted, I brought 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 a little brook of running water, very fresh and  good; but  this 

being the dry season, there was hardly any water in  some parts of  it - at least not enough to run in any 

stream, so as  it could be  perceived.  On the banks of this brook I found many  pleasant savannahs  or meadows, 

plain, smooth, and covered with  grass; and on the rising  parts of them, next to the higher grounds,      where the 

water, as might  be supposed, never overflowed, I found a      great deal of tobacco, green,  and growing to a great 

and very  strong stalk.  There were divers other  plants, which I had no  notion of or understanding about, that 

might,  perhaps, have virtues  of their own, which I could 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 saw large plants of  aloes, but  did 

not understand them.  I saw several sugar-canes, but  wild, and,  for want of cultivation, imperfect.  I contented 

myself  with these  discoveries for this time, and came back, musing with  myself what  course I might take to 

know the virtue and goodness of any  of the  fruits or plants which I should discover, but could bring it to  no 

conclusion; for, in short, I had made so little observation while I  was in the Brazils, that I knew little of the 

plants in the field;  at  least, very little that might serve to any purpose now in my  distress. 



The next day, the sixteenth, I went up the same way again; and  after going something further than I had gone 

the day before, I  found  the brook and the savannahs cease, and the country become  more woody  than before. 

In this part I found different fruits, and  particularly  I found melons upon the ground, in great abundance,  and 

grapes upon  the trees.  The vines had spread, indeed, over the  trees, and the  clusters of grapes were just now 

in their prime,  very ripe and rich.  This was a surprising discovery, and I was  exceeding glad of them;  but I 

was warned by my experience to eat  sparingly of them;  remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary,  the 

eating of grapes  killed several of our Englishmen, who were  slaves there, by throwing  them into fluxes and 

fevers.  But I found  an excellent use for these  grapes; and that was, to cure or dry  them in the sun, and keep 

them as  dried grapes or raisins are kept,  which I thought would be, as indeed  they were, wholesome and 

agreeable to eat when no grapes could 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  from home.  In the night, I took my first contrivance, and got up  in  a tree, where I slept 

well; and the next morning proceeded upon  my  discovery; travelling nearly four miles, as I might judge by 

the  length of the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of  hills  on the south and north side of me.  At the 

end of this march  I came to  an opening where the country seemed to descend to the  west; and a  little spring of 

fresh water, which issued out of the  side of the hill  by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and  the country 

appeared  so fresh, so green, so flourishing, everything  being in a constant  verdure or flourish of spring that it 

looked  like a planted garden.  I  descended a little on the side of that  delicious vale, surveying it  with a secret 

kind of pleasure, though  mixed with my other afflicting  thoughts, to think that this was all  my own; that I was 

king and lord  of all this country indefensibly,  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 in  England.  I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, 

orange, and lemon,  and citron trees; but all wild, and very few  bearing any fruit, at  least not then.   However, 

the green limes that I  gathered were not  only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I  mixed their juice 

afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome,  and very cool  and refreshing.  I found now I had 

business enough to  gather and  carry home; and I resolved to lay up a store as well of  grapes as  limes and 

lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season,  which I  knew was approaching.  In order to do this, I gathered a 



CHAPTER VII - AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE                                                                              46 


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great  heap  of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place, and a  great  parcel of limes and lemons in 

another place; and taking a few of  each with me, I travelled homewards; resolving to come again, and  bring 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  I must now call my tent and my cave); but before I got thither  the  grapes were 

spoiled; the richness of the fruit and the weight  of the  juice having broken them and bruised them, they were 

good  for little  or nothing; as to the limes, they were good, but I could  bring but a  few. 



The next day, being the nineteenth, I went back, having made me two  small bags to bring home my harvest; 

but I was surprised, when  coming  to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when I  gathered  them, to 

find them all spread about, trod to pieces, and  dragged  about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten 

and  devoured.  By  this I concluded there were some wild creatures  thereabouts, which had  done this; but what 

they were I knew not.  However, as I found there  was no laying them up on heaps, and no  carrying them away 

in a sack,  but that one way they would be  destroyed, and the other way they would  be crushed with their own 

weight, I took another course; for I  gathered a large quantity of  the grapes, and hung them trees, that  they 

might cure and dry in  the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I  carried as many back as  I could well stand 

under. 



When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great  pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and 

the pleasantness of  the  situation; the security from storms on that side of the water,  and the  wood: and 

concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix  my abode  which was by far the worst part of the country. 

Upon the  whole, I  began to consider of removing my habitation, and looking  out for a  place equally safe as 

where now I was situate, if  possible, in that  pleasant, fruitful part of the island. 



This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding fond of it  for some time, the pleasantness of the place 

tempting me; but when  I  came to a nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the  seaside, where it was 

at least possible that something might happen  to my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me 

hither  might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and  though  it was scarce probable that 

any such thing should ever  happen, yet to  enclose myself among the hills and woods in the  centre of the 

island  was to anticipate my bondage, and to render  such an affair not only  improbable, but impossible; 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 time there for the  whole of the remaining part of the  month of July; and though upon  second 

thoughts, I resolved not to  remove, yet I built me a little  kind of a bower, and surrounded it at  a distance with 

a strong  fence, being a double hedge, as high as I  could reach, well staked  and filled between with 

brushwood; and here I  lay very secure,  sometimes two or three nights together; always going  over it with a 

ladder; so that I fancied now I had my country house  and my sea-  coast house; and this work took me up to 

the beginning of  August. 



I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour,  when the rains came on, and made me stick 

close to my first  habitation; for though I had made me a tent like the other, with a  piece of a sail, and spread it 

very well, yet I had not the shelter  of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat  into when 

the rains were extraordinary. 



About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower,  and began to enjoy myself.  The 3rd of 

August, I found the grapes I  had hung up perfectly dried, and, indeed, were excellent good  raisins  of the sun; 

so I began to take them down from the trees,  and it was  very happy that I did so, for the rains which followed 

would have  spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter  food; for I  had above two hundred large 

bunches of them.  No sooner  had I taken      them all down, and carried the most of them home to my  cave, than it 

began to rain; and from hence, which was the 14th of  August, it  rained, more or less, every day till the middle 

of  October; and  sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of  my cave for  several days. 



CHAPTER VII - AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE                                                                               47 


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In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family;  I had 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  tidings  of her till, to 

my astonishment, she came home about the  end of August  with three kittens.  This was the more strange to 

me  because, though I  had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with my  gun, yet I thought it  was quite a different 

kind from our European  cats; but the young cats  were the same kind of house-breed as the  old one; and both 

my cats  being females, I thought it very strange.  But from these three cats I  afterwards came to be so pestered 

with  cats that I was forced to kill  them like vermin or wild 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 not stir, 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 day killed a 

goat; and the last day, which was the  26th,  found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my  food 

was  regulated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast;  a piece of  the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my 

dinner,  broiled - for, to  my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil or  stew anything; and two  or three of the 

turtle's eggs for my supper. 



During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily two  or three hours at enlarging my cave, and 

by degrees worked it on  towards one side, till I came to the outside of the hill, and made  a  door or way out, 

which came beyond my fence or wall; and so I  came in  and out this way.  But I was not perfectly easy at lying 

so  open; for,  as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect  enclosure; whereas  now I thought I lay 

exposed, and open for  anything to come in upon me;  and yet I could not perceive that  there was any living 

thing to fear,  the biggest creature that I had  yet seen upon the island being a goat. 



SEPT. 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 three hundred and sixty-five days.  I kept this day as a  solemn  fast, setting it apart 

for religious exercise, prostrating  myself on  the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing  my sins 

to  God, acknowledging His righteous judgments upon me, and  praying to Him  to have mercy on me through 

Jesus Christ; and not  having tasted the  least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the  going down of the  sun, 

I then ate a biscuit-cake and 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 no  sense of religion upon my mind,  I had, after some time, 

omitted to  distinguish the weeks, by making a  longer notch than ordinary for  the Sabbath day, and so did not 

really  know what any of the days  were; but now, 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 a Sabbath; though I found at the  end of 

my account  I had lost a day or two in my reckoning.  A little  after this, my  ink began to fail me, and so I 

contented myself to use  it more  sparingly, and to write down only the most remarkable events  of my  life, 

without continuing a daily memorandum of 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; but I bought all my experience before I had it, and  this  I am going to relate was 

one of the most discouraging    experiments that  I made. 



I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice,  which I had so surprisingly found spring 

up, as I thought, of  themselves, and I believe there were about thirty stalks of rice,  and  about twenty of 

barley; and now I thought it a proper time to  sow it,  after the rains, the sun being in its southern position, 

going from  me.  Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well as  I could with  my wooden spade, and 

dividing it into two parts, I  sowed my grain; but  as I was sowing, it casually occurred to my  thoughts that I 

would not  sow it all at first, because I did not  know when was the proper time  for it, so I sowed about 

two-thirds  of the seed, leaving about a  handful of each.  It was a great  comfort to me afterwards that I did  so, 

for not one grain of what I  sowed this time came to anything: for  the dry months following, the  earth having 

had no rain after the seed  was sown, it had no  moisture to assist its growth, and never came up  at all till the 

wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it  had been but  newly sown.  Finding my first seed did not 



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grow, which I  easily  imagined was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of  ground  to make 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 vernal equinox; and this having the rainy months of  March  and April to water it, sprung up very 

pleasantly, and yielded  a very  good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not  daring to  sow all that I 

had, I had but a small quantity at last,  my whole crop  not amounting to above half a peck of each kind.  But  by 

this  experiment I was made master of my business, and knew  exactly when the  proper season was to sow, and 

that I might expect  two seed-times and  two harvests every year. 



While this corn was growing I made a little discovery, which was of  use to me afterwards.  As soon as the 

rains were over, and the  weather began to settle, which was about the month of November, I  made a visit up 

the country to my bower, where, though I had not  been  some months, yet I found all things just as I left them. 

The  circle  or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and  entire, but the  stakes which I had cut out of 

some trees that grew  thereabouts were  all shot out and grown with long branches, as much  as a willow-tree 

usually shoots the first year after lopping its  head.  I could not  tell what tree to call it that these stakes were  cut 

from.  I was  surprised, and yet very well pleased, to see the  young trees grow; and  I pruned them, and led 

them up to grow as  much alike as I could; and  it is scarce credible how beautiful a  figure they grew into in 

three  years; so that though the hedge made  a circle of about twenty-five  yards in diameter, yet the trees, for 

such I might now call them, soon  covered it, and it was a complete  shade, sufficient to lodge under all  the dry 

season.  This made me  resolve to cut some more stakes, and  make me a hedge like this, in  a semi-circle round 

my wall (I mean that  of my first dwelling),  which I did; and placing the trees or stakes in  a double row, at 

about eight yards distance from my first fence, they  grew  presently, and were at first a fine 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, not into summer and winter, as in 

Europe, but into the  rainy  seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus:- The  half of  February, the 

whole of March, and the half of April -  rainy, the sun  being then on or near the equinox. 



The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July, and the half  of August - dry, the sun being then to the 

north of the line. 



The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of October  - rainy, the sun being then come back. 



The half of October, the whole of November, December, and January,  and the half of February - dry, the sun 

being then to the south of  the line. 



The rainy seasons sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds  happened to blow, but this was the general 

observation I made.  After  I had found by experience the ill consequences of being  abroad in 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 as  possible during the wet months.  This time I found  much employment,  and very suitable also 

to the time, for I found  great occasion for  many things which I had no way to furnish myself  with but by hard 

labour and constant application; particularly I  tried many ways to  make myself a basket, 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 a basket-maker's, in  the town where 

my father  lived, to see them make their wicker-ware;  and being, as boys usually  are, very officious to help, 

and a great  observer of the manner in  which they worked those things, and  sometimes lending a hand, I had 

by  these means full knowledge of  the methods of it, and I wanted nothing  but the materials, when it  came into 

my mind that the twigs of that  tree from whence I cut my  stakes that grew might possibly be as tough  as the 

sallows,  willows, and osiers in England, and I resolved to try.  Accordingly, the next day I went to my country 

house, as I called  it,  and cutting some of the smaller 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 a quantity, which I soon found, 

for there was  great plenty of them.  These I set up to dry within  my circle or  hedge, and when they were fit for 



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use I carried them  to my cave; and  here, during the next season, I employed myself in  making, as well as  I 

could, a great many baskets, both to carry  earth or to carry or lay  up anything, as I had occasion; and though  I 

did not finish them very  handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently  serviceable for my purpose;  thus, 

afterwards, I took care never to  be without them; and as my  wicker-ware decayed, I made more,  especially 

strong, deep baskets to  place my corn in, instead of  sacks, 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  wants.  I had no vessels to hold anything that was liquid, except  two  runlets, which were 

almost full of rum, and some glass bottles  - some  of the common size, and others which were case bottles, 

square, for  the holding of water, spirits,  I had not so much  as a pot to boil  anything, except a great kettle, 

which I saved out  of the ship, and  which was too big for such as I desired it - viz.  to make broth, and  stew a 

bit of meat by itself.  The second thing  I fain would have had  was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible to  me 

to make one; however,  I found a contrivance for that, too, at  last.  I employed myself in  planting my second 

rows of stakes or  piles, and in this wicker-working  all the summer or dry season,  when another business took 

me up more  time than it could be  imagined I could spare. 



                           CHAPTER VIII - SURVEYS HIS POSITION 



I MENTIONED before that I had a great mind to see the whole island,  and that I had travelled up the brook, 

and so on to where I built  my  bower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other  side  of the 

island.  I now resolved to travel quite across to the  sea-shore  on that side; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and 

my dog,  and a larger  quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two  biscuit-cakes and a  great bunch of 

raisins in my pouch for my  store, I began my journey.  When I had passed the vale where my  bower stood, as 

above, I came  within view of the sea to the west,  and it being a very clear day, I  fairly descried land - 

whether an  island or a continent I could not  tell; but it lay very high,  extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at 

a  very great distance; by my  guess it could not be less than fifteen or  twenty leagues off. 



I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise  than that I knew it must be part of America, 

and, as I concluded by  all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and  perhaps  was all 

inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had  been in a  worse condition than I was now; and therefore I 

acquiesced in the  dispositions of Providence, which I began now to  own and to believe  ordered everything for 

the best; I say I quieted  my mind with this,  and left off afflicting myself with fruitless  wishes of being there. 



Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered that if  this land was the Spanish coast, I should 

certainly, one time or  other, see some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not,  then it was the savage 

coast between the Spanish country and  Brazils,  where are found the worst of savages; for they are           cannibals 

or  men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the  human bodies  that fall into their hands. 



With these considerations, I walked very leisurely forward.  I  found that side of the island where I now was 

much pleasanter than  mine - the open or savannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and  grass, and full of 

very fine woods.  I saw abundance of parrots,  and  fain I would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to 

be tame,  and taught it to speak to me.  I did, after some  painstaking, catch a  young parrot, for I knocked it 

down with a  stick, and having recovered  it, I brought it home; but it was some  years before I could make him 

speak; however, at last I taught him  to call me by name very  familiarly.  But the accident that  followed, 

though it be a trifle,  will be very diverting in its  place. 



I was exceedingly diverted with this journey.  I found in the low  grounds hares (as I thought them to be) and 

foxes; but they  differed  greatly from all the other kinds I had met with, nor could  I satisfy  myself to eat them, 

though I killed several.  But I had  no need to be  venturous, for I had no want of food, and of that  which was 

very good  too, especially these three sorts, viz. goats,  pigeons, and turtle, or  tortoise, which added to my 



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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



grapes,  Leadenhall market could not have  furnished a table better than I,  in proportion to the company; and 

though my case was deplorable  enough, yet I had great cause for  thankfulness that I was not  driven to any 

extremities for food, but  had rather plenty, even to  dainties. 



I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a  day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns 

and re-turns to see  what discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the  place  where I resolved to 

sit down all night; and then I either  reposed  myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes  set 

upright in the ground, either from one tree to another, or so  as no  wild creature could come at me without 

waking me. 



As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I  had taken up my lot on the worst side of the 

island, for here,  indeed, the shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on  the other side I had 

found but three in a year and a half.  Here  was  also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some which I 

had seen,  and some which I had not seen before, and many of them  very good meat,  but such as I knew not 

the names of, except those  called penguins. 



I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of my  powder and shot, and therefore had more 

mind to kill a she-goat if  I  could, which I could better feed on; and though there were many  goats  here, more 

than on my side the island, yet it was with much  more  difficulty that I could come near them, the country 

being flat  and  even, and they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills. 



I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine;  but yet I had not the least inclination to 

remove, for as I was  fixed  in my habitation it became natural to me, and I seemed all  the while I  was here to 

be as it were upon a journey, and from  home.  However, I  travelled along the shore of the sea towards the  east, 

I suppose about  twelve miles, and then setting up a great  pole upon the shore for a  mark, I concluded I would 

go home again,  and that the next journey I  took should be on the other side of the  island east from my 

dwelling,  and so round till I came to my post  again. 



I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could  easily keep all the island so much in my 

view that I could not miss  finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found  myself  mistaken, for 

being come about two or three miles, I found  myself  descended into a very large valley, but so surrounded 

with  hills, and  those hills covered with wood, that I could not see  which was my way  by any direction but 

that of the sun, nor even  then, unless I knew  very well the position of the sun at that time  of the day.  It 

happened, to my further misfortune, that the  weather proved hazy for  three or four days while I was in the 

valley, and not being able to  see the sun, I wandered about very  uncomfortably, and at last was  obliged to 

find the seaside, look  for my post, and come back the same  way I went: and then, by easy  journeys, I turned 

homeward, the weather  being exceeding hot, and  my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things  very heavy. 



In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it;  and I, running in to take hold of it, caught 

it, and saved it alive  from the dog.  I had a great mind to bring it home if I could, for  I  had often been musing 

whether it might not be possible to get a  kid or  two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply 

me when my  powder and shot should be all spent.  I made a collar  for this little  creature, and with a string, 

which I made of some  rope-yam, which I  always carried about me, I led him along, though  with some 

difficulty,  till I came to my bower, and there I enclosed  him and left him, for I  was very impatient to be at 

home, from  whence I had been absent above  a month. 



I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my  old hutch, and lie down in my 

hammock-bed.  This little wandering  journey, without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to  me, 

that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect  settlement to me compared to that; and it rendered 

everything about  me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way  from  it again while it 

should be my lot to stay on the island. 



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I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my  long journey; during which most of the time 

was taken up in the  weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a  mere domestic, and 

to be well acquainted with me.  Then I began to  think of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little 

circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food;  accordingly I went, and found it where I 

left it, for indeed it  could  not get out, but was almost starved for want of food.  I went  and cut  boughs of trees, 

and branches of such shrubs as I could  find, and  threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did  before, to 

lead  it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that  I had no need to  have tied it, for it followed me like a 

dog: and  as I continually fed  it, the creature became so loving, so gentle,  and so fond, that it  became from that 

time one of my domestics  also, and would never leave  me afterwards. 



The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept  the 30th of September in the same 

solemn manner as before, being  the  anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there  two 

years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first  day I  came there, I spent the whole day in 

humble and thankful  acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary  condition was 

attended with, and without which it might have been  infinitely more miserable.  I gave humble and hearty 

thanks that  God  had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might  be  more happy in this solitary 

condition than I should have been in  the  liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world; that  He  could 

fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state,  and  the want of human society, by His presence and 

the  communications of  His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and  encouraging me to  depend upon 

His providence here, and hope for His  eternal presence  hereafter. 



It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this  life I now led was, with all its miserable 

circumstances, than the  wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days;  and now I changed 

both my sorrows and my joys; my very desires  altered, my affections changed their gusts, and my delights 

were  perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or, indeed,  for  the two years past. 



Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for viewing the  country, the anguish of my soul at my 

condition would break out  upon  me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to  think of the 

woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I  was a prisoner,  locked up with the eternal bars and 

bolts of the  ocean, in an  uninhabited wilderness, without redemption.  In the  midst of the  greatest composure 

of my mind, this would break out  upon me like a  storm, and make me wring my hands and weep like a  child. 

Sometimes it  would take me in the middle of my work, and I  would immediately sit  down and sigh, and look 

upon the ground for  an hour or two together;  and this was still worse to me, for if I  could burst out into tears, 

or vent myself by words, it would go  off, and the grief, having  exhausted itself, would abate. 



But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts: I daily read  the word of God, and applied all the 

comforts of it to my present  state.  One morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these  words, "I will 

never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee."  Immediately it occurred that these words were to me; why else 

should  they be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when I  was  mourning over my condition, as one 

forsaken of God and man?  "Well,  then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill  consequence  can it 

be, or what matters it, though the world should  all forsake me,  seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, 

and should lose the  favour and blessing of God, there would be no  comparison in the loss?" 



From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was  possible for me to be more happy in this 

forsaken, solitary  condition  than it was probable I should ever have been in any other  particular  state in the 

world; and with this thought I was going to  give thanks  to God for bringing me to this place.  I know not what 

it was, but  something shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst  not speak the  words.  "How canst thou 

become such a hypocrite,"  said I, even  audibly, "to pretend to be thankful for a condition  which, however 

thou mayest endeavour to be contented with, thou  wouldst rather pray  heartily to be delivered from?"  So I 

stopped  there; but though I  could not say I thanked God for being there,  yet I sincerely gave  thanks to God 

for opening my eyes, by whatever  afflicting providences,  to see the former condition of my life, and  to mourn 



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for my  wickedness, and repent.  I never opened the Bible,  or shut it, but my  very soul within me blessed God 

for directing my  friend in England,  without any order of mine, to pack it up among  my goods, and for 

assisting me afterwards to save it out of the  wreck of the ship. 



Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and  though I have not given the reader the 

trouble of so particular an  account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may  be  observed that I 

was very seldom idle, but having regularly  divided my  time according to the several daily employments that 

were before me,  such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading the  Scriptures, which  I constantly set apart 

some time for thrice every  day; secondly, the  going abroad with my gun for food, which  generally took me up 

three  hours in every morning, when it did not  rain; thirdly, the ordering,  cutting, preserving, and cooking 

what  I had killed or caught for my  supply; these took up great part of  the day.  Also, it is to be  considered, that 

in the middle of the  day, when the sun was in the  zenith, the violence of the heat was  too great to stir out; so 

that  about four hours in the evening was    all the time I could be supposed  to work in, with this exception,  that 

sometimes I changed my hours of  hunting and working, and went  to work in the morning, and abroad with 

my gun in the afternoon. 



To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be added the  exceeding laboriousness of my work; the 

many hours which, for want  of  tools, want of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up  out  of my time. 

For example, I was full two and forty days in  making a  board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; 

whereas, two  sawyers, with their tools and a saw-pit, would have  cut six of them  out of the same tree in half 

a day. 



My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut  down, because my board was to be a broad 

one.  This tree I was  three  days in cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs,  and  reducing it to a log 

or piece of timber.  With inexpressible  hacking  and hewing I reduced both the sides of it into chips till  it 

began to  be light enough to move; then I turned it, and made one  side of it  smooth and flat as a board from 

end to end; then,  turning that side  downward, cut the other side til I brought the  plank to be about three  inches 

thick, and smooth on both sides.  Any one may judge the labour  of my hands in such a piece of work;  but 

labour and patience carried  me through that, and many other  things.  I only observe this in  particular, to show 

the reason why  so much of my time went away with  so little work - viz. that what  might be a little to be done 

with help  and tools, was a vast labour  and required a prodigious time to do  alone, and by hand.  But 

notwithstanding this, with patience and  labour I got through  everything that my circumstances made 

necessary  to me to do, as  will appear by what follows. 



I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my  crop of barley and rice.  The ground I 

had manured and dug up for  them was not great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not  above  the 

quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by  sowing  in the dry season.  But now my crop promised 

very well, when  on a  sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again by  enemies of  several sorts, which 

it was scarcely possible to keep  from it; as,  first, the goats, and wild creatures which I called  hares, who, 

tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and  day, as soon  as it came up, and eat it so close, that it 

could get  no time to shoot  up into stalk. 



This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a  hedge; which I did with a great deal of 

toil, and the more, because  it required speed.  However, as my arable land was but small,  suited  to my crop, I 

got it totally well fenced in about three  weeks' time;  and shooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I  set 

my dog to  guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the  gate, where he  would stand and bark all night 

long; so in a little  time the enemies  forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong  and well, and began  to 

ripen apace. 



But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade,  so the birds were as likely to ruin me 

now, when it was in the ear;  for, going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little  crop 



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surrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who  stood,  as it were, watching till I should be gone.  I 

immediately  let fly  among them, for I always had my gun with me.  I had no  sooner shot,  but there rose up a 

little cloud of fowls, which I had  not seen at  all, from among the corn itself. 



This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they  would devour all my hopes; that I should be 

starved, and never be  able to raise a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell;  however, I resolved not to lose 

my corn, if possible, though I  should  watch it night and day.  In the first place, I went among it  to see  what 

damage was already done, and found they had spoiled a  good deal  of it; but that as it was yet too green for 

them, the  loss was not so  great but that the remainder was likely to be a  good crop if it could  be saved. 



I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily  see the thieves sitting upon all the trees 

about me, as if they  only  waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so;  for as  I walked off, as 

if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their  sight  than they dropped down one by one into the corn again.  I was 

so  provoked, that I could not have patience to stay till more came  on,  knowing that every grain that they ate 

now was, as it might be  said, a  peck-loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the  hedge, I  fired again, 

and killed three of them.  This was what I  wished for; so  I took them up, and served them as we serve 

notorious thieves in  England - hanged them in chains, for a terror  to of them.  It is  impossible to imagine that 

this should have such  an effect as it had,  for the fowls would not only not come at the  corn, but, in short, they 

forsook all that part of the island, and  I could never see a bird near  the place as long as my scarecrows  hung 

there.  This I was very glad  of, you may be sure, and about  the latter end of December, which was  our second 

harvest of the  year, I reaped my corn. 



I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and  all I could do was to make one, as well as I 

could, out of one of  the  broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of  the  ship.  However, as 

my first crop was but small, I had no great  difficulty to cut it down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I  cut 

nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket  which  I had made, and so rubbed it out with my 

hands; and at the  end of all  my harvesting, I found that out of my half-peck of seed  I had near two  bushels of 

rice, and about two bushels and a half of  barley; that is  to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that  time. 



However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that,  in time, it would please God to supply 

me with bread.  And yet here  I  was perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal  of  my corn, 

or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made  into  meal, how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, 

yet I  knew not  how to bake it.  These things being added to my desire of  having a  good quantity for store, and 

to secure a constant supply,  I resolved  not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for  seed against  the 

next season; and in the meantime to employ all my  study and hours  of working to accomplish this great work 

of  providing myself with corn  and bread. 



It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread.  I believe  few people have thought much upon the 

strange multitude of little  things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing,  making, and 

finishing this one article of bread. 



I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my  daily discouragement; and was made more 

sensible of it every hour,  even after I had got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I  have  said, came up 

unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise. 



First, I had no plough to turn up the earth - no spade or shovel to  dig it.  Well, this I conquered by making me 

a wooden spade, as I  observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and  though it cost me a 

great many days to make it, yet, for want of  iron, it not only wore out soon, but made my work the harder, 

and  made it be performed much worse.  However, this I bore with, and  was  content to work it out with 

patience, and bear with the badness  of the  performance.  When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but  was 

forced  to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a  tree over it,  to scratch it, as it may be called, 



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rather than rake  or harrow it.  When it was growing, and grown, I have observed  already how many  things I 

wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or  reap it, cure and carry  it home, thrash, part it from the chaff,  and save it. 

Then I wanted a  mill to grind it sieves to dress it,  yeast and salt to make it into  bread, and an oven to bake it; 

but  all these things I did without, as  shall be observed; and yet the  corn was an inestimable comfort and 

advantage to me too.  All this,  as I said, made everything laborious  and tedious to me; but that  there was no 

help for.  Neither was my  time so much loss to me,  because, as I had divided it, a certain part  of it was every 

day  appointed to these works; and as I had resolved to  use none of the  corn for bread till I had a greater 

quantity by me, I  had the next  six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and  invention, to  furnish myself 

with utensils proper for the performing  all the  operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it, fit  for 

my  use. 



                                        CHAPTER IX - A BOAT 



BUT first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed enough to  sow above an acre of ground.  Before I 

did this, I had a week's  work  at least to make 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, I got 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 in with a good hedge, the stakes  of which were all cut  off that wood which I had set before, and  knew it 

would grow; so that,  in a year's time, I knew I should have  a quick or living hedge, that  would want but little 

repair.  This  work did not take me up less than  three months, because a great  part of that time was the wet 

season,  when I could not go abroad.  Within-doors, that is when it rained and I  could not go out, I  found 

employment in the following occupations -  always observing,  that all the while I was at work I diverted 

myself  with talking to  my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and I quickly  taught him to  know his own name, 

and at last to speak it out pretty  loud, "Poll,"  which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the  island by 

any  mouth but my own.  This, therefore, was not my work, but  an  assistance to my work; for now, as I said, I 

had a great employment  upon my hands, as follows: I had long studied to make, by some  means  or other, 

some earthen vessels, which, indeed, I wanted  sorely, but  knew not where to come at them.  However, 

considering  the heat of the  climate, I did not doubt but if I could find out  any clay, I might  make some pots 

that might, being dried in the  sun, be hard enough and  strong enough to bear handling, and to hold  anything 

that was dry, and  required to be kept so; and as this was  necessary in the preparing  corn, meal, which was the 

thing I was doing, I resolved to make some  as large as I could, and fit  only to stand like jars, to hold what 

should be put into them. 



It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell  how many awkward ways I took to raise this 

paste; what odd,  misshapen, ugly things I made; how many of them fell in and how  many  fell out, the clay 

not being stiff enough to bear its own  weight; how  many cracked by the over-violent heat of the sun, being 

set out too  hastily; and how many fell in pieces with only    removing, as well  before as after they were dried; 

and, in a word,  how, after having  laboured hard to find the clay - to dig it, to  temper it, to bring it home, and 

work it - I could not 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  them very 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 as 

between the pot and the basket there was a little  room  to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw; 

and  these  two pots being to stand always dry I thought would hold my  dry corn,  and perhaps the meal, when 

the corn was bruised. 



Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet I made  several smaller things with better 

success; such as little round  pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand  turned to; and the 

heat of the sun baked them quite hard. 



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But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen  pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the 

fire, which none of these  could do.  It happened after some time, making a pretty large fire  for cooking my 

meat, when I went to put it out after I had done  with  it, I found a broken piece of one of my earthenware 

vessels in  the fire, burnt as hard 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, if they would burn broken. 



This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn  some pots.  I had no notion of a kiln, such as 

the potters burn in,  or of glazing them with lead, though I had some lead to do it with;  but I placed three large 

pipkins and two or three pots in a pile,  one  upon another, and placed my firewood all round it, with a great 

heap  of embers 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  quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all.  When I saw  them clear 

red, I let them stand in that heat about five  or six hours,  till I found one of them, though it did not crack,  did 

melt or run;  for the sand 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 fire gradually till the pots began to  abate of the red colour; 

and  watching them all night, that I might  not let the fire abate too fast,  in the morning I had three very  good (I 

will not say handsome)  pipkins, and two other earthen pots,  as hard burnt as could be  desired, and one of 

them perfectly glazed  with the running of the  sand. 



After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort of  earthenware for my use; but I must needs say as 

to the shapes of  them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, when I  had  no way of making 

them but as the children make dirt pies, or as  a  woman would make pies that never learned to raise paste. 



No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when  I found I had made an earthen pot that 

would bear the fire; and I  had  hardly patience to stay till they were cold before I set one on  the  fire again with 

some water in it to boil me some meat, which it  did  admirably well; and with a piece of a kid I made some 

very good  broth,  though I wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients  requisite to  make it as good as I 

would have had it been. 



My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat some  corn in; for as to the mill, there was no 

thought of arriving at  that  perfection of art with one pair of hands.  To supply this  want, I was  at a great loss; 

for, of all the trades in the world, I  was as  perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any  whatever; neither 

had I any tools to go about it with.  I spent  many a day to find out a  great stone big enough to cut hollow, and 

make fit for a mortar, and  could find none at all, except what was  in the solid rock, and which I  had no way to 

dig or cut out; nor  indeed were the rocks in the island  of hardness sufficient, but  were all of a sandy, 

crumbling stone,  which neither would bear the  weight of a heavy pestle, nor would break  the corn without 

filling  it with sand.  So, after a great deal of time  lost in searching for  a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to 

look  out for a great block  of hard wood, which I found, indeed, much  easier; and getting one  as big as I had 

strength to stir, I rounded  it, and formed it on  the outside with my axe and hatchet, and then  with the help of 

fire and infinite labour, made a hollow place in it,  as the Indians in  Brazil make their canoes.  After this, I 

made a  great heavy pestle  or beater of the wood called the iron-wood; and  this I prepared and  laid by against 

I had my next crop of corn, which  I proposed to  myself to grind, or rather pound into meal to make  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  see it possible I could have any bread.  This was a most difficult  thing even to think 

on, for to be sure I had nothing like the  necessary thing to make it - I mean fine thin canvas or stuff to  searce 

the meal through.  And here I 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 goat's hair, but neither knew how to  weave  it or spin it; and had I 

known how, here were no tools to  work it  with.  All the remedy that I found for this was, that at  last I did 

remember I had, among the seamen's clothes which were          saved out of the  ship, some neckcloths of calico or 

muslin; and  with some pieces of  these I made three small sieves proper enough  for the work; and thus I  made 

shift for some years: how I did  afterwards, I shall show in its  place. 



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The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I  should make bread when I came to have corn; 

for first, I had no  yeast.  As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did  not concern myself much 

about it.  But for an oven I was indeed in  great pain.  At length I found out an experiment for that also,  which 

was this: I made some earthen-vessels very broad but not         deep, that is  to say, about two feet diameter, and 

not above nine  inches deep.     These I burned in the fire, as I had done the other,  and laid them  by; and when I 

wanted to bake, I made a great fire  upon my hearth,  which I had paved with some square tiles of my own 

baking and burning  also; but I should not call them square. 



When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals,  I drew them forward upon this hearth, 

so as to cover it all over,  and  there I let them lie till the hearth was very hot.  Then  sweeping away  all the 

embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and  whelming down the  earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all 

round  the outside of the  pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus as  well as in the best  oven in the world, I 

baked my barley-loaves,  and became in little time  a good pastrycook into the bargain; for I  made myself 

several cakes  and puddings of the rice; but I made no  pies, neither had I anything  to put into them supposing I 

had,  except the flesh either of fowls or  goats. 



It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up most part  of the third year of my abode here; for it is 

to be observed that  in  the intervals of these things I had my new harvest and husbandry  to  manage; for 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 rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on,  or  instrument to thrash it with. 



And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to  build my barns bigger; I wanted a place to 

lay it up in, for the  increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the  barley  about twenty 

bushels, and of the rice as much or more;  insomuch that  now I resolved to begin to use it freely; for my  bread 

had been quite  gone a great while; also I resolved to see  what quantity would be  sufficient for me a whole 

year, and to sow  but once a year. 



Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice  were much more than I could consume in a 

year; so I resolved to sow  just the same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes  that such a quantity 

would fully provide me with bread, 



All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts  ran many times upon the prospect of 

land which I had seen from the  other side of the island; and I was not without secret wishes that  I  were on 

shore there, fancying that, seeing the mainland, and an  inhabited country, I might find some way or other to 

convey myself  further, and perhaps at last find some means of escape. 



But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such an  undertaking, and how I might fall into the 

hands of savages, and  perhaps such as I might have reason to think far worse than the  lions  and tigers of 

Africa: that if I once came in their power, I  should run  a hazard of more 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 from that shore.  Then, supposing  they were not 

cannibals,  yet they might kill me, as many Europeans  who had fallen into their  hands had been served, even 

when they had  been ten or twenty together  - much more I, that was but one, and  could make little or no 

defence;  all these things, I say, which I  ought to have considered well; and  did come into my thoughts 

afterwards, yet gave me no apprehensions at  first, and my head ran  mightily upon the thought of getting over 

to  the shore. 



Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat with shoulder-of-  mutton sail, with which I sailed above 

a thousand miles on the  coast  of Africa; but this was in vain: then I thought I would go  and look at  our ship's 

boat, which, as I have said, was blown up  upon the shore a  great way, in the storm, when we were first cast 

away.  She lay almost  where she did at first, but not quite; and  was turned, by the force of  the waves and the 



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winds, almost bottom  upward, against a high ridge of  beachy, rough sand, but no water  about her.  If I had had 

hands to  have refitted her, and to have  launched her into the water, the boat  would have done well enough, 

and I might have gone back into the  Brazils with her easily enough;  but I might have foreseen that I could  no 

more turn her and set her  upright upon her bottom than I could  remove the island; however, I  went to the 

woods, and cut levers and  rollers, and brought them to  the boat resolving to try what I could  do; suggesting to 

myself  that if I could but turn her down, I might  repair the damage she  had received, and she would be a very 

good boat,  and I might go to    sea in her very easily. 



I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and  spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last 

finding it  impossible to heave it up with my little strength, I fell to  digging  away the sand, to undermine it, 

and so to make it fall  down, setting  pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the  fall. 



But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to  get under it, much less to move it forward 

towards the water; so I  was forced to give it over; and yet, though I gave over the hopes  of  the boat, my desire 

to venture over for the main increased,  rather  than decreased, as the means for it seemed impossible. 



This at length put me upon thinking whether it was not possible to  make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as 

the natives of those  climates make, even without tools, or, as I might say, without  hands,  of the trunk of a 

great tree.  This I not only thought  possible, but  easy, and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts  of 

making it, and  with my having much more convenience for it than  any of the negroes or  Indians; but not at all 

considering the  particular inconveniences  which I lay under more than the Indians  did - viz. want of hands to 

move it, when it was made, into the  water - a difficulty much harder  for me to surmount than all the 

consequences of want of tools could be  to them; for what was it to  me, if when I had chosen a vast tree in  the 

woods, and with much  trouble cut it down, if I had been able with  my tools to hew and  dub the outside into 

the proper shape of a boat,  and burn or cut  out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat  of it - if, 

after all this, I must leave it just there where I found  it, and  not be able to launch it into the water? 



One would have thought I could not have had the least reflection  upon my mind of my circumstances while I 

was making this boat, but  I  should have immediately thought how I should get it into the sea;  but  my 

thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it,  that I  never once considered how I should get it off 

the land: and  it was  really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over  forty-five miles of sea than 

about forty-five fathoms of land,  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 ever able to undertake  it;  not but that the 

difficulty of launching my boat came often  into my  head; but I put a stop to my inquiries into it by this 

foolish answer  which I gave myself - "Let me first make it; I  warrant I will find  some way or other to get it 

along when it is  done." 



This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancy  prevailed, and to work I went.  I felled a 

cedar-tree, and I  question  much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building  of the  Temple of 

Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at  the lower  part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches 

diameter  at the end  of twenty-two feet; after which it lessened for a while,  and then  parted into branches.  It 

was not without infinite labour  that I  felled this tree; I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it  at the 

bottom; I was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs  and the  vast spreading head cut off, which I 

hacked and hewed  through with axe  and hatchet, and inexpressible labour; after this,  it cost me a month  to 

shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to   something like the  bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as  it 

ought to do.  It  cost me near three months more to clear the  inside, and work 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 to have  carried six-and-twenty men, and 

consequently big enough to have  carried me and all my cargo. 



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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 had I gotten it into the  water, I  make no question, but I should have begun the maddest 

voyage, and the  most unlikely to be performed, that ever was  undertaken. 



But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they  cost me infinite labour too.  It lay about one 

hundred yards from  the  water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up  hill  towards the creek. 

Well, to take away this discouragement, I  resolved  to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a 

declivity: this I  began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains  (but who grudge pains  who have their 

deliverance in view?); but  when this was worked  through, and this difficulty managed, it was  still much the 

same, for  I could no more stir the canoe than I  could the other boat.  Then I  measured the distance of ground, 

and  resolved to cut a dock or canal,  to bring the water up to the  canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe 

down to the water.  Well,  I began this work; and when I began to enter  upon it, and calculate  how deep it was 

to be dug, how broad, how the  stuff was to be  thrown out, I found that, by the number of hands I  had, being 

none  but my own, it must have 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 at least twenty feet deep; so  at  length, though with 

great reluctancy, I gave this attempt over    also. 



This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the folly  of beginning a work before we count the 

cost, and before we judge  rightly of our own strength to go through with it. 



In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place,  and kept my anniversary with the same 

devotion, and with as much  comfort as ever before; for, by a constant study and serious  application to the 

Word of God, and by the assistance of His grace,  I  gained a different knowledge from what I had before.  I 

entertained  different notions of things.  I looked now upon the  world as a thing  remote, which I had nothing to 

do with, no  expectations from, and,  indeed, no desires about: in a word, I had  nothing indeed to do with  it, 

nor was ever likely to have, so I  thought it looked, as we may  perhaps look upon it hereafter - viz.  as a place 

I had lived in, but  was come out of it; and well might I  say, as Father Abraham to Dives,  "Between me and 

thee is a great  gulf fixed." 



In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of the  world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, 

the lusts of the  eye, nor the pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had all  that I was now capable of 

enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor;      or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over the  whole 

country which I had possession of: there were no rivals; I  had no  competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or 

command with me:  I might       have raised ship-loadings of corn, but I had no use for it;  so I let  as little grow as 

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 timber enough to have built a fleet of  ships; and I had  grapes enough to have made 

wine, or to have cured  into raisins, to  have loaded that fleet when it had been built. 



But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I had enough  to eat and supply my wants, and what was 

all the rest to me?  If I  killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin;  if I sowed more corn 

than I could eat, it must be spoiled; the  trees  that I cut down were lying to rot on the ground; I could make  no 

more  use of them but for fuel, and that I had no occasion for  but to dress  my food. 



In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon  just reflection, that all the good things of 

this world are no  farther good to us than they are for our use; and that, whatever we  may heap up to give 

others, we enjoy just as much as we can use,  and  no more.  The most covetous, griping miser in the world 

would   have  been cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in my  case; for  I possessed infinitely more 

than I knew what to do with.  I had no room  for desire, except it was of things which I had not,  and they were 

but  trifles, though, indeed, 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! there the sorry, useless  stuff lay; I had no  more manner of 



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business for it; and often  thought with myself that I  would have given a handful of it for a  gross of 

tobacco-pipes; or for  a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, I  would have given it all for a  sixpenny-worth of 

turnip and carrot  seed out of England, or for a  handful of peas and beans, and a  bottle of ink.  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 cave in the wet seasons;  and if I had had the  drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same  case - they 

had been  of no manner of value to me, because of no use. 



I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than  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 of  God's 

providence, which had thus spread my table in the  wilderness.  I  learned to look more upon the bright side of 

my  condition, and less  upon the dark side, and to consider what I  enjoyed rather than what I  wanted; and this 

gave me sometimes such  secret comforts, that I cannot  express them; and which I take  notice of here, to put 

those  discontented people in mind of it, who  cannot enjoy comfortably what  God has given them, because 

they see  and covet something that He has  not given them.  All our  discontents about what we want appeared 

to me  to spring from the  want of thankfulness for what we have. 



Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be  so to any 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 would be; 

nay, with what it would certainly have been,  if  the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the 

ship  to be  cast up nearer to the shore, where I not only could come at  her, but  could bring what I got out of 

her to the shore, for my  relief and  comfort; without which, I had wanted for tools to work,  weapons for 

defence, and gunpowder and shot for getting my food. 



I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to  myself, in the most lively colours, how I must 

have acted if I had  got nothing out of the ship.  How I could not have so much as got  any  food, except fish and 

turtles; and that, as it was long before  I found  any of them, I must have perished first; that I should have  lived, 

if  I had not perished, like a mere 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 the bowels, or to  cut it up; but must gnaw  it with my 

teeth, and pull it with my  claws, like a beast. 



These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of  Providence to me, and very thankful for my 

present condition, with  all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot but  recommend to the 

reflection of those who are apt, in their misery,  to  say, "Is any affliction like mine?"  Let them consider how 

much  worse  the cases of some people are, and their case might have been,  if  Providence had thought fit. 



I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my mind  with hopes; and this was comparing my 

present situation with what I  had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of  Providence.  I 

had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of  the  knowledge and fear of God.  I had been well instructed by 

father and  mother; neither had they been wanting to me in their  early endeavours  to infuse a 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 most  destitute of the fear of God, though His 

terrors are always before  them; I say, falling early into the  seafaring life, and into seafaring  company, all that 

little sense  of religion which I had entertained was  laughed 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 absence  from all manner 

of opportunities to converse with anything but what  was like  myself, or to hear anything that was good or 

tended towards  it. 



So void was I of everything that was good, or the least sense of  what 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  Portuguese master of the 

ship; my being planted so well in the  Brazils; my receiving the cargo from England, and the like - I  never 

had once the words "Thank God!" so much as on my mind, or in  my mouth;  nor in the greatest distress had I 



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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 to swear by, and  blaspheme it. 



I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I have  already observed, on account of my 

wicked and hardened life past;  and  when I looked about me, and considered what particular  providences had 

attended me since my coming into this place, and  how God had dealt  bountifully with me - had not only 

punished me  less than my iniquity  had deserved, but had so plentifully provided  for me - this gave me  great 

hopes that my repentance was accepted,  and that God had yet  mercy in store for me. 



With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to a  resignation to the will of God in the present 

disposition of my  circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition;  and that I, who was yet 

a living man, ought not to complain, seeing  I  had not the due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed so many 

mercies  which I had no reason to have expected in that place; that  I ought  never more to repine at my 

condition, but to rejoice, and  to give  daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but a  crowd of  wonders 

could have brought; that I ought to consider I had  been fed  even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding 

Elijah  by ravens,  nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I could  hardly have named  a place in the 

uninhabitable part of the world  where I could have been  cast more to my advantage; a place where,  as I had 

no society, which  was my affliction on one hand, so I  found no ravenous beasts, no  furious wolves or tigers, 

to threaten  my life; no venomous creatures,  or poisons, which I might feed on  to my hurt; no savages to 

murder and  devour me.  In a word, as my  life was a life of sorrow one way, so it  was a life of mercy  another; 

and I wanted nothing to make it a life of  comfort but to  be able to make my sense of God's goodness to me, 

and  care over me  in this condition, be my daily consolation; and after I  did make a  just improvement on these 

things, I went away, and was no  more sad.  I had now been here so long that many things which I had  brought 

on  shore for my help were either quite gone, or very much  wasted and  near spent. 



My ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but a very  little, which I eked out with water, a little and 

a little, till it  was so pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper.  As long as it lasted I made use 

of it to minute down the days of  the  month on which any remarkable thing happened to me; and first,  by 

casting up times past, I remembered that there was a strange  concurrence of days in the various providences 

which befell me, and  which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as  fatal or fortunate, I 

might have 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 my  father and friends and ran away to Hull, in 

order to go to sea, the  same day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man-of-war, and made  a  slave; the 

same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck  of  that ship in Yarmouth Roads, that same day-year 

afterwards I  made my  escape from Sallee in a boat; the same day of the year I  was born on -  viz. the 30th of 

September, that same day I had my  life so  miraculously saved 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  a day. 



The next thing to my ink being wasted was that of my bread - I mean  the biscuit which I brought out of the 

ship; this I had husbanded  to  the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a-day for  above  a year; 

and yet I was quite without bread for near a year  before I got  any corn of my own, and great reason I had to 

be  thankful that I had  any at all, the getting it being, as has been  already observed, next  to miraculous. 



My clothes, too, began to decay; as to linen, I had had none a good  while, except some chequered shirts 

which I found in the chests of  the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved; because many  times  I could 

bear no other clothes on but a shirt; and it was a  very great  help to me that I had, among all the men's clothes 

of  the ship, almost  three dozen of shirts.  There were also, indeed,  several thick  watch-coats of the seamen's 

which were left, but they  were too hot to  wear; and though it is true that the weather was so  violently hot that 

there was no need of clothes, yet I could not go  quite naked - no,  though I had been inclined to it, which I 

was not  - nor could I abide  the thought of it, though I was alone.  The  reason why I could not go  naked was, I 



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could not bear the heat of  the sun so well when quite  naked as with some clothes on; nay, the  very heat 

frequently blistered  my skin: whereas, with a shirt on,  the air itself made some motion,  and whistling under 

the shirt, was  twofold cooler than without it.  No  more could I ever bring myself  to go out in the heat of the 

sun  without a cap or a hat; the heat  of the sun, beating with such  violence as it does in that place,  would give 

me the headache  presently, by darting so directly on my  head, without a cap or hat on,  so that I could not bear 

it;  whereas, if I 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  the  waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not  make  jackets out 

of the great watch-coats which I had by me, and  with such  other materials as I had; so I set to work, tailoring, 

or  rather,  indeed, botching, for I made most piteous work of it.  However, I made  shift to make two or three 

new waistcoats, which I  hoped would serve  me a great while: as for breeches or drawers, I  made but a very 

sorry  shift indeed till afterwards. 



I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that I  killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had 

them hung up, stretched  out with sticks in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry  and hard that 

they were fit for little, but others were very  useful.  The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my 

head, with the  hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this  I performed so  well, that after I made me a 

suit of clothes wholly  of these skins -  that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at  the knees, and both 

loose, for they were rather wanting to keep me  cool than to keep me  warm.  I must not omit to acknowledge 

that  they were wretchedly made;  for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a  worse tailor.  However, they  were such 

as I made very good shift  with, and when I was out, if it  happened to rain, the hair of my  waistcoat and cap 

being outermost, I  was kept very dry. 



After this, I spent a great deal of time and pains to make an  umbrella; I was, indeed, in great want of one, and 

had a great mind  to make one; I had seen them made in the Brazils, where they are  very  useful in the great 

heats there, and I felt the heats every  jot 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, as  well for the rains as the heats.  I took a 

world of  pains with it, and  was a great while before I could make anything  likely to hold: nay,  after I had 

thought I had hit the way, I  spoiled two or three before I  made one to my mind: but at last I  made one that 

answered  indifferently well: the main difficulty I  found was to make it let  down.  I could make it spread, but if 

it  did not let down too, and  draw in, it was not portable for me any  way but just over my head,  which would 

not do.  However, at last,  as I said, I made one to  answer, and covered it with skins, the  hair upwards, so that it 

cast  off the rain like a pent-house, and  kept off the sun so effectually,  that I could walk out in the  hottest of 

the weather with greater  advantage than I could before  in the coolest, and when 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 by  resigning myself to the will of God, 

and throwing myself wholly  upon  the disposal of His providence.  This made my life better than  sociable, for 

when I began to regret the want of conversation I  would  ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with 

my own  thoughts, and  (as I hope I may say) with even God Himself, by  ejaculations, was not  better than the 

utmost enjoyment of human  society in the world? 



                                   CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS 



I CANNOT say that after this, for five years, any extraordinary  thing happened to me, but I lived on in the 

same course, in the  same  posture and place, as before; the chief things I was employed  in,  besides my yearly 

labour of planting my barley and rice, and  curing my  raisins, of both which I always kept up just enough to 

have sufficient  stock of one year's provisions beforehand; I say,  besides this yearly  labour, and my daily 

pursuit of going out with  my gun, I had one  labour, to make a canoe, which at last I  finished: so that, by 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                             62 


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                                                      Robinson Crusoe 



digging  a canal to it of six feet wide and  four feet deep, I brought it into  the creek, almost half a mile.  As for 

the first, which was so vastly  big, for I made it without  considering beforehand, as I ought to have  done, how 

I should be  able to launch it, so, never being able to bring  it into the water,  or bring the water to it, I was 

obliged to let it  lie where it was  as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser the next  time: indeed, the  next 

time, though I could not get a tree proper for  it, and was in  a place where I could not get the water to it at any 

less distance  than, as I have said, near half a mile, yet, as I saw it  was  practicable at last, I never gave it over; 

and though I was near  two years about it, yet I never grudged my labour, in hopes of  having  a boat to go off 

to sea at last. 



However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it  was not at all answerable to the design 

which I had in view when I  made the first; I mean of venturing over to the TERRA FIRMA, where  it  was 

above forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my  boat  assisted to put an end to that design, and now 

I thought no  more of  it.  As I had a boat, my next design was to make a cruise  round the  island; for as I had 

been on the other side in one place,  crossing, as  I have already described it, over the land, so the  discoveries I 

made  in that little journey made me very eager to see  other parts of the  coast; and now I had a boat, I thought 

of  nothing but sailing round  the island. 



For this purpose, that I might do everything with discretion and  consideration, I fitted up a little mast in my 

boat, and made a  sail  too out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails which lay in  store,  and of which I had a 

great stock by me.  Having fitted my  mast and  sail, and tried the boat, I found she would sail very  well; then I 

made little lockers or boxes at each end of my boat,  to put  provisions, necessaries, ammunition, into, to be 

kept  dry, either from  rain or the spray of the sea; and a little, long,  hollow place I cut  in the inside of the boat, 

where I could lay my  gun, making a flap to  hang down over it to keep it dry. 



I fixed my umbrella also in the step at the stern, like a mast, to  stand over my head, and keep the heat of the 

sun off me, like an  awning; and thus I every now and then took a little voyage upon the  sea, but never went 

far out, nor far from the little creek.  At  last,  being eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, I 

resolved  upon my cruise; and accordingly I victualled my ship for  the voyage,  putting in two dozen of loaves 

(cakes I should call  them) of  barley-bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice (a food  I ate a good              deal of), a 

little bottle of rum, half a goat, and  powder and shot for  killing more, and two large watch-coats, of  those 

which, as I  mentioned before, I had saved out of the seamen's  chests; these I  took, one to lie upon, and the 

other to cover me in  the night. 



It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign - or my  captivity, which you please - that I set out 

on this voyage, and I  found it much longer than I expected; for though the island itself  was not very large, yet 

when I came to the east side of it, I found  a  great ledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some 

above water, some under it; and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying  dry half a league more, so that I was 

obliged to go a great way out  to sea to double the point. 



When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my  enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how 

far it might  oblige  me to go out to sea; and above all, doubting how I should  get back  again: so I came to an 

anchor; for I had made a kind of an  anchor with  a piece of a broken grappling which I got out of the  ship. 



Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went on shore, climbing  up a hill, which seemed to overlook that 

point where I saw the full  extent of it, and resolved to venture. 



In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived a  strong, and indeed a most furious current, 

which ran to the east,  and  even came close to the point; and I took the more notice of it  because  I saw there 

might be some danger that when I came into it I  might be  carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be 

able  to make the  island again; and indeed, had I not got first upon this  hill, I  believe it would have been so; 

for there was the same  current on the  other side the island, only that it set off at a  further distance, and  I saw 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                                      63 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



there was a strong eddy under the  shore; so I had nothing to do  but to get out of the first current,  and I should 

presently be in an  eddy. 



I lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing pretty  fresh at ESE., and that being just contrary to 

the current, made a  great breach of the sea upon the point: so that it was not safe for  me to keep too close to 

the shore for the breach, nor to go too far  off, because of the stream. 



The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated overnight,  the sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a 

warning to all rash  and  ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I  was not  even my boat's 

length from the shore, but I found myself in  a great  depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it 

carried my  boat along with it with such violence that all I could  do could not  keep her so much as on the edge 

of it; but I found it  hurried me  farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on my  left hand.  There was 

no wind stirring to help me, and all I could  do with my  paddles signified nothing: and now I began to give 

myself over for  lost; for as the current was on both sides of the  island, I knew in a  few leagues distance they 

must join again, and  then I was  irrecoverably gone; nor did I see any possibility of  avoiding it; so  that I had 

no prospect before me but of perishing,  not by the sea, for  that was calm enough, but of starving from  hunger. 

I had, indeed,  found a tortoise on the shore, as big  almost as I could lift, and had  tossed it into the boat; and I 

had  a great jar of fresh water, that is  to say, one of my earthen pots;  but what was all this to being driven  into 

the vast ocean, where,  to be sure, there was no shore, no  mainland or island, for a  thousand leagues at least? 



And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make  even the most miserable condition of 

mankind worse.  Now I looked  back upon my desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place  in  the world 

and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to  be but  there again.  I stretched out my hands to it, with 

eager  wishes - "O  happy desert!" said I, "I shall never see thee more.  O  miserable  creature! whither am 

going?"  Then I reproached myself  with my  unthankful temper, and that I had repined at my solitary 

condition;  and now what would I give to be on shore there again!  Thus, we never  see the true state of our 

condition till it is  illustrated to us by  its contraries, nor know how to value what we  enjoy, but by the want  of 

it.  It is scarcely possible to imagine  the consternation I was now  in, being driven from my beloved island  (for 

so it appeared to me now  to be) into the wide ocean, almost  two leagues, and in the utmost  despair of ever 

recovering it again.  However, I worked hard till,  indeed, my strength was almost  exhausted, and kept my boat 

as much to  the northward, that is,  towards the side of the current which the eddy  lay on, as possibly  I could; 

when about noon, as the sun passed the  meridian, I thought  I felt a little breeze of wind in my face,  springing 

up from SSE.  This cheered my heart a little, and especially  when, in about half-  an-hour more, it blew a 

pretty gentle gale.  By  this time I had got  at a frightful distance from the island, and had  the least cloudy  or 

hazy weather intervened, I had been undone another  way, too; for  I had no compass on board, and should 

never have known  how to have  steered towards the island, if I had but once lost sight  of it; but  the weather 

continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my  mast  again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north as 

much as  possible, to get out of the current. 



Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch  away, I saw even by the clearness of the 

water some alteration of  the   current was near; for where the current was so strong the water  was  foul; but 

perceiving the water clear, I found the current  abate; and  presently I found to the east, at about half a mile, a 

breach of the  sea upon some rocks: these rocks I found caused the  current to part  again, and as the main stress 

of it ran away more  southerly, leaving  the rocks to the north-east, so the other  returned by the repulse of  the 

rocks, and made a strong eddy, which  ran back again to the  north-west, with a very sharp stream. 



They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon  the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves 

just going to murder  them,  or who have been in such extremities, may guess what my  present  surprise of joy 

was, and how gladly I put my boat into the  stream of  this eddy; and the wind also freshening, how gladly I 

spread my sail  to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with  a strong tide or  eddy underfoot. 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                            64 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



This eddy carried me about a league on my way back again, directly  towards the island, but about two 

leagues more to the northward  than  the current which carried me away at first; so that when I  came near  the 

island, I found myself open to the northern shore of  it, that is  to say, the other end of the island, opposite to 

that  which I went out  from. 



When I had made something more than a league of way by the help of  this current or eddy, I found it was 

spent, and served me no  further.  However, I found that being between two great currents -  viz. that on  the 

south side, which had hurried me away, and that on  the north,  which lay about a league on the other side; I 

say,  between these two,  in the wake of the island, I found the water at  least still, and  running no way; and 

having still a breeze of wind  fair for me, I kept  on steering directly for the island, though not  making such 

fresh way  as I did before. 



About four o'clock in the evening, being then within a league of  the island, I found the point of the rocks 

which occasioned this  disaster stretching out, as is described before, to the southward,  and casting off the 

current more southerly, had, of course, made  another eddy to the north; and this I found very strong, but not 

directly setting the way my course lay, which was due west, but  almost full north.  However, having a fresh 

gale, I stretched  across  this eddy, slanting north-west; and in about an hour came  within about  a mile of the 

shore, where, it being smooth water, I  soon got to land. 



When I was on shore, God I fell on my knees and gave God thanks  for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside 

all thoughts of my  deliverance by my boat; and refreshing myself with  such things as  I  had, I brought my 

boat close to the shore, in a little cove that  I had  spied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being 

quite spent  with the labour and fatigue of the voyage. 



I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat!  I  had run so much hazard, and knew too much 

of the case, to think of  attempting it by the way I went out; and what might be at the other  side (I mean the 

west side) I knew not, nor had I any mind to run  any  more ventures; so I resolved on the next morning to 

make my way  westward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where I  might lay up my frigate in 

safety, so as to have her again if I  wanted her.  In about three miles or thereabouts, coasting the  shore,  I came 

to a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which  narrowed  till it came to a very little rivulet or brook, 

where I  found a very  convenient harbour for my boat, and where she lay as  if she had been  in a little dock 

made on purpose for her.  Here I  put in, and having  stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to  look about 

me, and see  where I was. 



I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had  been before, when I travelled on foot to that 

shore; so taking  nothing out of my boat but my gun and umbrella, for it was  exceedingly hot, I began my 

march.  The way was comfortable enough  after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reached my old bower 

in  the evening, where I found everything standing as I left it; for  I  always kept it in good order, being, as I 

said before, my country  house. 



I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest my  limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but 

judge you, if you  can, that read my story, what a surprise I must be in when I was  awaked out of my sleep by 

a voice calling me by my name several  times, "Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe!  Where are 

you, Robin Crusoe?  Where are you?  Where have you been?" 



I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or part  of the day, and with walking the latter part, 

that I did not wake  thoroughly; but dozing thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me;  but as the voice 

continued to repeat, "Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,"  at last I began to wake more perfectly, and was at first 

dreadfully  frightened, and started up in the utmost consternation; but no  sooner  were my eyes open, but I saw 

my Poll sitting on the top of  the hedge;  and immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me;  for just in such 

bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and  teach him; and he had  learned it so perfectly that he would 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                           65 


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                                                   Robinson Crusoe 



sit  upon my finger, and lay his  bill close to my face and cry, "Poor  Robin Crusoe!  Where are you?  Where 

have you been?  How came you  here?" and such things as I had  taught him. 



However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it  could be nobody else, it was a good while 

before I could compose  myself.  First, I was amazed how the creature got thither; and  then,  how he should just 

keep about the place, and nowhere else;  but as I  was well satisfied it could be nobody but honest Poll, I  got 

over it;  and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name,  "Poll," the  sociable creature came to me, and 

sat upon my thumb, as  he used to do,  and continued talking to me, "Poor Robin Crusoe! and  how did I come 

here? and where had I been?" just as if he had been  overjoyed to see  me again; and so I carried him home 

along with me. 



I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had  enough to do for many days to sit still and 

reflect upon the danger  I  had been in.  I would have been very glad to have had my boat  again on  my side of 

the island; but I knew not how it was  practicable to get it  about.  As to the east side of the island,  which I had 

gone round, I  knew well enough there was no venturing  that way; my very heart would  shrink, and my very 

blood run chill,  but to think of it; and as to the  other side of the island, I did  not know how it might be there; 

but  supposing the current ran with  the same force against the shore at the  east as it passed by it on  the other, I 

might run the same risk of  being driven down the  stream, and carried by the island, as I had been  before of 

being  carried away from it: so with these thoughts, I  contented myself to  be without any boat, though it had 

been the  product of so many  months' labour to make it, and of so many more to  get it into the  sea. 



In this government of my temper I remained near a year; and lived a  very sedate, retired life, as you may well 

suppose; and my thoughts  being very much composed as to my condition, and fully comforted in  resigning 

myself to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I  lived  really very happily in all things except that of 

society. 



I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises which  my necessities put me upon applying 

myself to; and I believe I  should, upon occasion, have made a very good carpenter, especially  considering 

how few tools I had. 



Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my  earthenware, and contrived well enough to make 

them with a wheel,  which I found infinitely easier and better; because I made things  round and shaped, which 

before were filthy things indeed to look  on.  But I think I was never more vain of my own performance, or 

more  joyful for anything I found out, than for my being able to  make a  tobacco-pipe; and though it was a 

very ugly, clumsy thing  when it was  done, and only burned red, like other earthenware, yet  as it was hard  and 

firm, and would draw the smoke, I was  exceedingly comforted with  it, for I had been always used to smoke; 

and there were pipes in the  ship, but I forgot them at first, not  thinking there was tobacco in  the island; and 

afterwards, when I  searched the ship again, I could  not come at any pipes. 



In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made abundance of  necessary baskets, as well as my 

invention showed me; though not  very  handsome, yet they were such as were very handy and convenient  for 

laying things up in, or fetching things home.  For example, if  I  killed a goat abroad, I could hang it up in a 

tree, flay it, dress it,  and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket; and  the like by a  turtle; I could cut it 

up, take out the eggs and a  piece or two of the  flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them  home in a 

basket, and  leave the rest behind me.  Also, large deep  baskets were the receivers  of my corn, which I always 

rubbed out as  soon as it was dry and cured,  and kept it in great baskets. 



I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably; this was a  want which it was impossible for me to 

supply, and I began  seriously  to consider what I must do when I should have no more  powder; that is  to say, 

how I should kill any goats.  I had, as is  observed in the  third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and 

bred her up tame,  and I was in hopes of getting a he-goat; but I  could not by any means  bring it to pass, till 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                                66 


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                                                Robinson Crusoe 



my kid grew an old  goat; and as I could never  find in my heart to kill her, she died  at last of mere age. 



But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I have  said, my ammunition growing low, I set 

myself to study some art to  trap and snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of  them alive; and 

particularly I wanted a she-goat great with young.  For this purpose I made snares to hamper them; and I do 

believe  they  were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good,  for I  had no wire, and I always 

found them broken and my bait  devoured.  At  length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug several  large pits in the 

earth, in places where I had observed the goats  used to feed, and over  those pits I placed hurdles of my own 

making  too, with a great weight  upon them; and several times I put ears of  barley and dry rice without  setting 

the trap; and I could easily  perceive that the goats had gone  in and eaten up the corn, for I  could see the marks 

of their feet.  At  length I set three traps in  one night, and going the next morning I  found them, all standing, 

and yet the bait eaten and gone; this was  very discouraging.  However, I altered my traps; and not to trouble 

you  with  particulars, going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of  them a large old he-goat; and in 

one of the others three kids, a  male  and two females. 



As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce  I durst not go into the pit to him; that is to 

say, to bring him  away  alive, which was what I wanted.  I could have killed him, but  that was  not my 

business, nor would it answer my end; so I even let  him out,  and he ran away as if he had been frightened out 

of his  wits.  But I  did not then know what I afterwards learned, that  hunger will tame a  lion.  If I had let him 

stay three or four days  without food, and then  have carried him some water to drink and  then a little corn, he 

would   have been as tame as one of the kids;  for they are mighty sagacious,  tractable creatures, where they are 

well used. 



However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that  time: then I went to the three kids, and taking 

them one by one, I  tied them with strings together, and with some difficulty brought  them all home. 



It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some  sweet corn, it tempted them, and they 

began to be tame.  And now I  found that if I expected to supply myself with goats' flesh, when I  had no 

powder or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way,  when, perhaps, I might have them about my 

house like a flock of  sheep.  But then it occurred to me that I must keep the tame from  the  wild, or else they 

would always run wild when they grew up; and  the  only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of 

ground,  well  fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so  effectually, that  those within might not 

break out, or those  without break in. 



This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet, as I saw  there was an absolute necessity for doing it, 

my first work was to  find out a proper piece of ground, where there was likely to be  herbage for them to eat, 

water for them to drink, and cover to keep  them from the sun. 



Those who understand such enclosures will think I had very little  contrivance when I pitched upon a place 

very proper for all these  (being a plain, open piece of meadow land, or savannah, as our  people  call it in the 

western colonies), which had two or three  little drills  of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody -  I 

say, they will smile at my forecast, when I shall tell them I  began by enclosing this  piece of ground in such a 

manner that, my  hedge or pale must have been  at least two miles about.  Nor was the  madness of it so great as 

to  the compass, for if it was ten miles  about, I was like to have time  enough to do it in; but I did not  consider 

that my goats would be as  wild in so much compass as if  they had had the whole island, and I  should have so 

much room to  chase them in that I should never catch  them. 



My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty yards  when this thought occurred to me; so I 

presently stopped short,  and,  for the beginning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about one  hundred  and fifty 

yards in length, and one hundred yards in  breadth, which, as  it would maintain as many as I should have in 

any reasonable time, so,  as my stock increased, I could add more  ground to my enclosure. 



CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS                                                                                          67 


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                                                   Robinson Crusoe 



This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with  courage.  I was about three months hedging in 

the first piece; and,  till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the best part of  it,  and used them to feed as 

near me as possible, to make them  familiar;  and very often I would go and carry them some ears of  barley, or 

a  handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that  after my  enclosure was finished and I let them loose, 

they would  follow me up  and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn. 



This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a flock  of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in 

two years more I had  three-and-forty, besides several that I took and killed for my  food.  After that, I 

enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed  them in,  with little pens to drive them to take them as I wanted, 

and gates out  of one piece of ground into another. 



But this was not all; for now I not only had goat's flesh to feed  on when I pleased, but milk too - a thing 

which, indeed, in the  beginning, I did not so much as think of, and which, when it came  into my thoughts, 

was really an agreeable surprise, for now I set  up  my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a 

day.  And as  Nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature,  dictates even  naturally how to make use of 

it, so I, that had never  milked a cow,  much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made only  when I was a boy, 

after a great many essays and miscarriages, made  both butter and  cheese at last, also salt (though I found it 

partly  made to my hand by  the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of  the sea), and never  wanted it 

afterwards.  How mercifully can our  Creator treat His  creatures, even in those conditions in which they 

seemed to be  overwhelmed in destruction!  How can He sweeten the  bitterest  providences, and give us cause 

to praise Him for dungeons  and prisons!      What a table was here spread for me in the  wilderness, where I saw 

nothing at first but to perish for hunger! 



           CHAPTER XI - FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S  FOOT ON THE SAND 



IT would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my little  family sit down to dinner.  There was my 

majesty the prince and  lord    of the whole 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 among all my subjects.  Then, to see how like a 

king I dined,  too, all alone, attended by my servants!  Poll, as if  he had been my  favourite, was the only person 

permitted to talk to  me.  My dog, who  was now grown old and crazy, and had found no  species to multiply his 

kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and  two cats, one on one side  of the table and one on the other, 

expecting now and then a bit from  my hand, as a mark of especial  favour. 



But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first,  for they were both of them dead, and had 

been interred near my  habitation by my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I  know not what 

kind of creature, these were two which I had  preserved  tame; whereas the rest ran wild in the woods, and 

became  indeed  troublesome to me at last, for they would often come into my  house,  and plunder me too, till 

at last I was obliged to shoot  them, and did  kill a great many; at length they left me.  With this  attendance and 

in this plentiful manner I lived; neither could I be  said to want  anything but society; and of that, some time 

after  this, I was likely  to have too much. 



I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of  my boat, though very loath to run any more 

hazards; and therefore  sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at  other times I sat 

myself down contented enough without her.  But I  had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the 

point of the  island where, as I have said in my last ramble, I went up the hill  to  see how the shore lay, and 

how the current set, that I might see  what  I had to do: this inclination increased upon me every day, and  at 

length I resolved to travel thither by land, following the edge  of the  shore.  I did so; but had any one in 

England met such a man  as I was,  it must either have frightened him, or raised a great  deal of  laughter; and as 

I frequently stood still to look at  myself, I could  not but smile at the notion of my travelling  through 

Yorkshire with  such an equipage, and in such a dress.  Be  pleased to take a sketch of  my figure, as follows. 



CHAPTER XI - FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S  FOOT ON THE SAND                                                                   68 


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                                                 Robinson Crusoe 



I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a  flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the 

sun from me as to  shoot  the rain off from running into my neck, nothing being so  hurtful in  these climates as 

the rain upon the flesh under the  clothes. 



I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to  about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of 

open-kneed breeches  of  the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat,  whose  hair hung 

down such a length on either side that, like  pantaloons, it  reached to the middle of my legs; stockings and 

shoes I had none, but  had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce  knew what to call them,  like buskins, to flap 

over my legs, and  lace on either side like  spatterdashes, but of a most barbarous  shape, as indeed were all the 

rest of my clothes. 



I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together  with two thongs of the same instead of 

buckles, and in a kind of a  frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a  little saw and a 

hatchet, one on one side and one on the other.  I  had another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same 

manner,  which  hung over my shoulder, 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 the other my shot.  At my back I carried  my basket, 

and on  my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great  clumsy, ugly, goat's-skin  umbrella, but which, after 

all, was the  most necessary thing I had  about me next to my gun.  As for my  face, the colour of it was really 

not so mulatto-like as one might  expect from a man not at all careful  of it, and living within nine  or ten 

degrees of the equinox.  My beard  I had once suffered to  grow till it was about a quarter of a yard  long; but as 

I had both  scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it  pretty short, except  what grew on my upper lip, which I 

had trimmed  into a large pair of  Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by  some Turks at  Sallee, for 

the Moors did not wear such, though the  Turks did; of  these moustachios, or whiskers, 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 in England would have passed  for  frightful. 



But all this is by-the-bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to  observe me that it was of no manner of 

consequence, so I say no  more  of that.  In this kind of dress I went my new journey, and was  out  five or six 

days.  I travelled first along the sea-shore,  directly to  the place 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  nearer way to the same 

height that I was upon  before, when, looking  forward to the points of the rocks which lay  out, and which I 

was  obliged to double with my boat, as is said  above, I was surprised to  see the sea all smooth and quiet - no 

rippling, no motion, no current,  any more there than in other  places.  I was at a strange loss to  understand this, 

and resolved  to spend some time in the observing it,  to see if nothing from the  sets of the tide had occasioned 

it; but I  was presently convinced  how it was - viz. that the tide of ebb setting  from the west, and  joining with 

the current of waters from some great  river on the  shore, must be the occasion of this current, and that, 

according as  the wind blew more forcibly from the west or from the  north, this  current came nearer or went 

farther from the shore; for,  waiting  thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and  then the  tide of 

ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as  before,  only that it ran farther off, being near half a league 

from  the  shore, whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurried  me and my canoe along with it, 

which at another time it would not  have done. 



This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to  observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, 

and I might very  easily bring my boat about the island again; but when I began to  think of putting it in 

practice, I had such terror upon my spirits  at  the remembrance of the danger I had been in, that I could not 

think of  it again with any patience, but, on the contrary, I took  up another  resolution, which was more safe, 

though more laborious -  and this was,  that I would build, or rather make, me another  periagua or canoe, and 

so have one for one side of the island, and  one for the other. 



You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, two    plantations in the island - one my little 

fortification or tent,  with  the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave behind me,  which by  this time I had 



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enlarged into several apartments or caves,  one within  another.  One of these, which was the driest and  largest, 

and had a  door out beyond my wall or fortification - that  is to say, beyond  where my wall joined to the rock 

- was all filled  up with the large  earthen pots of which I have given an account,  and with fourteen or  fifteen 

great baskets, which would hold five  or six bushels each,  where I laid up my stores of provisions,  especially 

my corn, some in  the ear, cut off short from the straw,  and the other rubbed out with  my hand. 



As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those  piles grew all like trees, and were by this 

time grown so big, and  spread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, to  any  one's view, of 

any habitation behind them. 



Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land,  and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of 

corn land, which I kept  duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest  in  its season; and 

whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had  more land  adjoining as fit as that. 



Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerable  plantation there also; for, first, I had my little 

bower, as I  called  it, which I kept in repair - that is to say, I kept the  hedge which  encircled it in constantly 

fitted up to its usual  height, the ladder  standing always in the inside.  I kept the  trees, which at first were  no 

more than stakes, but were now grown  very firm and tall, always  cut, so that they might spread and grow 

thick and wild, and make the  more agreeable shade, which they did  effectually to my mind.  In the  middle of 

this I had my tent always  standing, being a piece of a sail  spread over poles, set up for  that purpose, and 

which never wanted any  repair or renewing; and  under this I had made me a squab or couch with  the skins of 

the  creatures I had killed, and with other soft things,  and a blanket  laid on them, such as belonged to our 

sea-bedding, which  I had  saved; and a great watch-coat to cover me.  And here, whenever I  had occasion to 

be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country  habitation. 



Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say  my goats, and I had taken an inconceivable 

deal of pains to fence  and  enclose this ground.  I was so anxious to see it kept entire,  lest the  goats should 

break through, that I never left off till,  with infinite  labour, 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,  and there was scarce room to 

put a hand through  between them; which  afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all  did in the next rainy 

season, made the enclosure strong like a  wall, indeed stronger than  any wall. 



This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no  pains to bring to pass whatever appeared 

necessary for my  comfortable  support, for I considered the keeping up a breed of  tame creatures  thus at my 

hand would be a living magazine of flesh,  milk, butter, and  cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if  it 

were to be forty  years; and that keeping them in my reach  depended entirely upon my  perfecting my 

enclosures to such a degree  that I might be sure of  keeping them together; which by this  method, indeed, I so 

effectually  secured, that when these little  stakes began to grow, I had planted  them so very thick that I was 

forced to pull some of them up again. 



In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally  depended on for my winter store of raisins, 

and which I never  failed  to preserve very 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 the  place where I had laid up my boat, I 

generally stayed and lay here  in  my way thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I  kept all  things 

about or belonging to her in very good order.  Sometimes I went  out in her to divert myself, but no more 

hazardous  voyages would I go,  scarcely ever above a stone's cast or two from  the shore, I was so 

apprehensive of being hurried out of my  knowledge again by the  currents or winds, or any other accident.  But 

now I come to a new  scene of my life.  It happened one day,  about noon, going towards my  boat, I was 



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exceedingly surprised with  the print of a man's naked foot  on the shore, which was very plain  to be seen on 

the sand.  I stood  like one thunderstruck, or as if I  had seen an apparition.  I  listened, I looked round me, but I 

could  hear nothing, nor see  anything; I went up to a rising ground to  look farther; I went up the  shore and 

down the shore, but it was  all one; I could see no other  impression but that one.  I went to  it again to see if 

there were any  more, and to observe if it might  not be my fancy; but there was no  room for that, for there was 

exactly the print of a foot - toes, heel,  and every part of a foot.  How it came thither I knew not, nor could I  in 

the least imagine;  but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like  a man perfectly  confused and out of myself, I 

came home to my  fortification, not  feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but  terrified to the last  degree, 

looking behind me at every two or three  steps, mistaking  every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a 

distance to be a  man.  Nor is it possible to describe how many various  shapes my  affrighted imagination 

represented things to me in, how many  wild  ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, 

unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way. 



When I came to my castle (for so I think I called it ever after  this), I fled into it like one pursued.  Whether I 

went over by the  ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock,  which  I had called a door, I 

cannot remember; no, nor could I  remember the  next morning, for never frightened hare fled to cover,  or fox 

to  earth, with more terror of mind than I to this retreat. 



I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of my  fright, the greater my apprehensions were, 

which is something  contrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual  practice of all creatures 

in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my  own frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal 

imaginations to myself, even though I was now a great way off.  Sometimes I fancied it must be the devil, and 

reason joined in with  me in this supposition, for how should any other thing in human  shape  come into the 

place?  Where was the vessel that brought them?  What  marks were there of any other footstep?  And how was 

it  possible a man  should come there?  But then, to think that Satan  should take human  shape upon him in such 

a place, where there could  be no manner of  occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot  behind him, and 

that even for no purpose too, for he could not be  sure I should see it  - this was an amusement the other way.  I 

considered that the devil  might have found out abundance of other  ways to have terrified me than  this of the 

single print of a foot;  that as I lived quite on the other  side of the island, he would  never have been so simple 

as to leave a  mark in a place where it  was ten thousand to one whether I should ever  see it or not, and in  the 

sand too, which the first surge of the sea,  upon a high wind,  would have defaced entirely.  All this seemed 

inconsistent with the  thing itself and with all the notions we usually  entertain of the  subtlety of the devil. 



Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all  apprehensions of its being the devil; and I 

presently concluded  then  that it must be some more dangerous creature - viz. that it  must be  some of the 

savages of the mainland opposite who had  wandered out to  sea in their canoes, and either driven by the 

currents or by contrary  winds, had made the island, and had been on  shore, but were gone away  again to sea; 

being as loath, perhaps, to  have stayed in this desolate  island as I would have been to have  had them. 



While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very  thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as 

not to be  thereabouts  at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by  which they would  have concluded that 

some inhabitants had been in  the place, and  perhaps have searched farther for me.  Then terrible  thoughts 

racked  my imagination about their having found out my  boat, and that there  were people here; and that, if so, 

I should  certainly have them come  again in greater numbers and devour me;  that if it should happen that  they 

should not find me, yet they  would find my enclosure, destroy all  my corn, and carry away all my  flock of 

tame goats, and I should  perish at last for mere want. 



Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former  confidence in God, which was founded upon 

such wonderful experience  as I had had of His goodness; as if He that had fed me by miracle  hitherto could 

not preserve, by His power, the provision which He  had  made for me by His goodness.  I reproached myself 

with my  laziness,  that would not sow any more corn one year than would just  serve me  till the next season, as 



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if no accident could intervene to  prevent my  enjoying the crop that was upon the ground; and this I  thought so 

just  a reproof, that I resolved for the future to have  two or three years'  corn beforehand; so that, whatever 

might come,  I might not perish for  want of bread. 



How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by  what secret different springs are the 

affections hurried about, as  different circumstances present!  To-day we love what to-morrow we           hate; 

to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what  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 only affliction was that I seemed banished  from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by the 

boundless  ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I call  silent life;  that I was as one whom 

Heaven thought not worthy to be  numbered among  the living, or to appear among the rest of His  creatures; 

that to have  seen one of my own species would have  seemed to me a raising me from  death to life, and the 

greatest  blessing that Heaven itself, next to  the supreme blessing of  salvation, could bestow; I say, that I 

should  now tremble at the  very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready  to sink into the  ground at but 

the shadow or silent appearance of a  man having set  his foot in the island. 



Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great  many curious speculations afterwards, 

when I had a little recovered  my first surprise.  I considered that this was the station of life  the infinitely wise 

and good providence of God had determined for  me;  that as I could not foresee what the ends of Divine 

wisdom  might be in  all this, so I was not to dispute His sovereignty; who,  as I was His  creature, had an 

undoubted right, by creation, to  govern and dispose  of me absolutely as He thought fit; and who, as  I was a 

creature that  had offended Him, had likewise a judicial  right to condemn me to what  punishment He thought 

fit; and that it  was my part to submit to bear  His indignation, because I had sinned  against Him.  I then 

reflected,  that as God, who was not only  righteous but omnipotent, had thought  fit thus to punish and  afflict 

me, so He was able to deliver me: that  if He did not think  fit to do so, it was my unquestioned duty to  resign 

myself  absolutely and entirely to His will; and, on the other  hand, it was  my duty also to hope in Him, pray to 

Him, and quietly to  attend to  the dictates and directions of His daily providence, 



These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeks  and months: and one particular effect of 

my cogitations on this  occasion I cannot omit.  One morning early, lying in my bed, and  filled with thoughts 

about my danger from the appearances of  savages,  I found it discomposed me very much; upon which these 

words of the  Scripture came into my thoughts, "Call upon Me in the  day of trouble,  and I will deliver thee, 

and thou shalt glorify  Me."  Upon this,  rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not  only comforted, but  I 

was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly  to God for deliverance:  when I had done praying I took up my 

Bible,  and opening it to read,  the first words that presented to me were,  "Wait on the Lord, and be  of good 

cheer, and He shall strengthen  thy heart; wait, I say, on the  Lord."  It is impossible to express  the comfort this 

gave me.  In  answer, I thankfully laid down the  book, and was no more sad, at least  on that occasion. 



In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections,  it came into my thoughts one day that all 

this might be a mere  chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own  foot, when I came 

on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a  little,  too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; 

that it was  nothing else but my own foot; and why might I not come  that way from  the boat, as well as I was 

going that way to the  boat?  Again, I  considered also that I could by no means tell for  certain where I had  trod, 

and where I had not; and that if, at  last, this was only the  print of my own foot, I had played the part  of those 

fools who try to  make stories of spectres and apparitions,  and then are frightened at  them more than anybody. 



Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had  not stirred out of my castle for three days 

and nights, so that I  began to starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within  doors but some 

barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats  wanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening 

diversion:  and  the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for  want of  it; and, indeed, it almost 

spoiled some of them, and almost  dried up  their milk.  Encouraging myself, therefore, with the  belief that this 



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was nothing but the print of one of my own feet,  and that I might be  truly said to start at my own shadow, I 

began  to go abroad again, and  went to my country house to milk my flock:  but to see with what fear I  went 

forward, how often I looked behind  me, how I was ready every now  and then to lay down my basket and  run 

for my life, it would have made  any one have thought I was  haunted with an evil conscience, or that I  had 

been lately most  terribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had.  However, I went down  thus two or three days, and 

having seen nothing,  I began to be a  little bolder, and to think there was really nothing  in it but my  own 

imagination; but I could not persuade myself fully of  this till  I should go down to the shore again, and see this 

print of a  foot,  and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or  fitness, that I might be 

assured it was my own foot: but when I  came  to the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I  laid 

up  my boat I could not possibly be on shore anywhere  thereabouts;  secondly, when I came to measure the 

mark with my own  foot, I found my  foot not so large by a great deal.  Both these  things filled my head  with 

new imaginations, and gave me the  vapours again to the highest  degree, so that I shook with cold like  one in 

an ague; and I went home  again, filled with the belief that  some man or men had been on shore  there; or, in 

short, that the  island was inhabited, and I might be  surprised before I was aware;  and what course to take for 

my security  I knew not. 



Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear!  It deprives them of the use of those 

means which reason offers for  their relief.  The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw  down my 

enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the  woods,  lest the enemy should find them, and then 

frequent the  island in  prospect of the same or the like booty: then the simple  thing of  digging up my two 

corn-fields, lest they should find such  a grain  there, and still be prompted to frequent the island: then  to 

demolish  my bower and tent, that they might not see any vestiges  of habitation,  and be prompted to look 

farther, in order to find  out the persons  inhabiting. 



These were the subject of the first night's cogitations after I was  come home again, while the apprehensions 

which had so overrun my  mind  were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours.  Thus,  fear of  danger is 

ten thousand times more terrifying than danger  itself, when  apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of 

anxiety greater, by  much, than the evil which we are anxious about:  and what was worse  than all this, I had 

not that relief in this  trouble that from the  resignation I used to practise I hoped to  have.  I looked, I thought, 

like Saul, who complained not only that  the Philistines were upon him,  but that God had forsaken him; for I 

did not now take due ways to  compose my mind, by crying to God in  my distress, and resting upon His 

providence, as I had done before,  for my defence and deliverance;  which, if I had done, I had at  least been 

more cheerfully supported  under this new surprise, and  perhaps carried through it with more  resolution. 



This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the  morning I fell asleep; and having, by the 

amusement of my mind,  been  as it were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very  soundly, and        waked 

much better composed than I had ever been  before.  And now I  began to think sedately; and, upon debate with 

myself, I concluded  that this island (which was so exceedingly  pleasant, fruitful, and no  farther from the 

mainland than as I had  seen) was not so entirely  abandoned as I might imagine; that  although there were no 

stated  inhabitants who lived on the spot,   yet that there might sometimes come  boats off from the shore, who, 

either with design, or perhaps never  but when they were driven by  cross winds, might come to this place;  that 

I had lived there  fifteen years now and had not met with the  least shadow or figure  of any people yet; and 

that, if at any time  they should be driven  here, it was probable they went away again as  soon as ever they 

could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here  upon any  occasion; that the most I could suggest any 

danger from was  from  any casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main,  who, as it was likely, 

if they were driven hither, were here  against  their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off again  with all 

possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lest  they should  not have the help of the tides and daylight 

back again;  and that,  therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider of some  safe retreat,  in case I should see 

any savages land upon the spot. 



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

as I said, came out beyond  where my fortification joined to the rock: upon maturely  considering  this, 

therefore, I resolved to draw me a second  fortification, in the  manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my 

wall, just where I had  planted a double row of trees about twelve  years before, of which I  made mention: 

these trees having been  planted so thick before, they  wanted but few piles to be driven  between them, that 

they might be  thicker and stronger, and my wall  would be soon finished.  So that I  had now a double wall; and 

my  outer wall was thickened with pieces of  timber, old cables, and  everything I could think of, to make it 

strong; having in it seven  little holes, about as big as I might put  my arm out at.  In the  inside of this I 

thickened my wall to about ten  feet thick with  continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying  it at the 

foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven  holes  I contrived to plant the muskets, of which I 

took notice that I  had  got seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted like my  cannon,  and fitted them into 

frames, that held them like a carriage,  so  that I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes' time; this  wall I 

was many a weary month in finishing, and yet never thought  myself safe till it was done. 



When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a  great length every way, as full with stakes 

or sticks of the osier-  like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand;  insomuch that I 

believe I might set in near twenty thousand of  them,  leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, 

that I  might  have room to see an enemy, and they might have no shelter  from the  young trees, if they 

attempted to approach my outer wall. 



Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or six  years' time I had a wood before my dwelling, 

growing so monstrously  thick and strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no  men,  of what kind 

soever, could ever imagine that there was  anything beyond  it, much less a habitation.  As for the way which I 

proposed to myself  to go in and out (for I left no avenue), it was  by setting two  ladders, one to a part of the 

rock which was low,  and then broke in,  and left room to place another ladder upon that;  so when the two 

ladders were taken down no man living could come  down to me without  doing himself mischief; and if they 

had come  down, they were still on  the outside of my outer wall. 



Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my  own preservation; and it will be seen at 

length that they were not  altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that  time  more than my 

mere fear suggested to me. 



                                CHAPTER XII - A CAVE RETREAT 



WHILE this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other  affairs; for I had a great concern upon me 

for my little herd of  goats: they were not only a ready supply to me on every occasion,  and  began to be 

sufficient for me, without the expense of powder  and shot,  but also without the fatigue of hunting after the 

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



For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but  two ways to preserve them: one was, to find 

another convenient  place  to dig a cave underground, and to drive them into it every  night; and  the other was 

to enclose two or three little bits of  land, remote from  one another, and as much concealed as I could,  where I 

might keep  about half-a-dozen young goats in each place; so  that if any disaster  happened to the flock in 

general, I might be  able to raise them again  with little trouble and time: and this  though it would require a 

good  deal of time and labour, I thought  was the most rational design. 



Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired parts  of the island; and I pitched upon one, which 

was as private,  indeed,  as my heart could wish: it was a little damp piece of  ground in the  middle of the 

hollow and thick woods, where, as is  observed, I almost  lost myself once before, endeavouring to come  back 

that way from the  eastern part of the island.  Here I found a  clear piece of land, near  three acres, so surrounded 



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with woods  that it was almost an enclosure  by nature; at least, it did not  want near so much labour to make it 

so  as the other piece of ground  I had worked so hard at. 



I immediately went to work with this piece of ground; and in less  than a month's time I had so fenced it round 

that my flock, or  herd,  call it which you please, which were not so wild now as at  first they  might be 

supposed to be, were well enough secured in it:  so, without  any further delay, I removed ten young she-goats 

and  two he-goats to  this piece, and when they were there I continued to  perfect the fence  till I had made it as 

secure as the other; which,  however, I did at  more leisure, and it took me up more time by a  great deal.  All 

this  labour I was at the expense of, purely from  my apprehensions on  account of the print of a man's foot; for 

as  yet I had never seen any  human creature come near the island; and I  had now lived two years  under this 

uneasiness, which, indeed, made  my life much less  comfortable than it was before, as may be well  imagined 

by any who  know what it is to live in the constant snare  of the fear of man.  And  this I must observe, with 

grief, too, that  the discomposure of my mind  had great impression also upon the  religious part of my 

thoughts; for  the dread and terror of falling  into the hands of savages and  cannibals lay so upon my spirits, 

that I seldom found myself in a due  temper for application to my  Maker; at least, not with the sedate  calmness 

and resignation of  soul which I was wont to do: I rather  prayed to God as under great  affliction and pressure 

of mind,  surrounded with danger, and in  expectation every night of being  murdered and devoured before 

morning; and I must testify, from my  experience, that a temper of  peace, thankfulness, love, and affection,  is 

much the more proper  frame for prayer than that of terror and  discomposure: and that  under the dread of 

mischief impending, a man is  no more fit for a  comforting performance of the duty of praying to God  than he 

is for  a repentance on a sick-bed; for these discomposures  affect the  mind, as the others do the body; and the 

discomposure of  the mind  must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the  body, and  much greater; 

praying to God being properly an act of the  mind, not  of the body. 



But to go on.  After I had thus secured one part of my little  living stock, I went about the whole island, 

searching for another  private place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to  the west point of 

the island than I had ever done yet, and looking  out to sea, I thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great 

distance.  I had found a perspective glass or two in one of the  seamen's chests,  which I saved out of our ship, 

but I had it not  about me; and this was  so remote that I could not tell what to make  of it, though I looked at  it 

till my eyes were not able to hold to  look any longer; whether it  was a boat or not I do not know, but as  I 

descended from the hill I  could see no more of it, so I gave it  over; only I resolved to go no  more out without 

a perspective glass  in my pocket.  When I was come  down the hill to the end of the  island, where, indeed, I 

had never  been before, I was presently  convinced that the seeing the print of a  man's foot was not such a 

strange thing in the island as I imagined:  and but that it was a  special providence that I was cast upon the side 

of the island  where the savages never came, I should easily have known  that  nothing was more frequent than 

for the canoes from the main, when  they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to  that side of 

the island for harbour: likewise, as they often met  and  fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken any 

prisoners, would  bring them over to this shore, where, according to  their dreadful  customs, being all 

cannibals, they would kill and  eat them; of which  hereafter. 



When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being  the SW. point of the island, I was 

perfectly confounded and amazed;  nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind at  seeing  the 

shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones  of human  bodies; and particularly I observed a place 

where there   had been a  fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a  cockpit, where I  supposed the savage 

wretches had sat down to their  human feastings  upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures. 



I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I  entertained no notions of any danger to myself from it 

for a long  while: all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a  pitch of inhuman, hellish 

brutality, and the horror of the  degeneracy  of human nature, which, though I had heard of it often,  yet I never 

had so near a view of before; in short, I turned away  my face from the  horrid spectacle; my stomach grew 

sick, and I was  just at the point of  fainting, when nature discharged the disorder  from my stomach; and 



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having vomited with uncommon violence, I was a  little relieved, but  could not bear to stay in the place a 

moment;  so I got up the hill  again with all the speed I could, and walked  on towards my own  habitation. 



When I came a little out of that part of the island I stood still  awhile, as amazed, and then, recovering myself, 

I looked up with  the  utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my  eyes,  gave God thanks, that 

had cast my first lot in a part of the  world  where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as  these; 

and  that, though I had esteemed my present condition very  miserable, had  yet given me so many comforts in 

it that I had still  more to give  thanks for than to complain of: and this, above all,  that I had, even  in this 

miserable condition, been comforted with      the knowledge of  Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was 

a  felicity more than  sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which  I had suffered, or  could suffer. 



In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began  to be much easier now, as to the safety of 

my circumstances, than  ever I was before: for I observed that these wretches never came to  this island in 

search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking,  not wanting, or not expecting anything here; and having 

often, no  doubt, been up the covered, woody part of it without finding  anything  to their purpose.  I knew I had 

been here now almost  eighteen years,  and never saw the least footsteps of human creature  there before; and  I 

might be eighteen years more as entirely  concealed as I was now, if  I did not discover myself to them, which 

I had no manner of occasion  to do; it being my only business to  keep myself entirely concealed  where I was, 

unless I found a better  sort of creatures than cannibals  to make myself known to.  Yet I  entertained such an 

abhorrence of the  savage wretches that I have  been speaking of, and of the wretched,  inhuman custom of their 

devouring and eating one another up, that I  continued pensive and  sad, and kept close within my own circle 

for  almost two years after  this: when I say my own circle, I mean by it my  three plantations -  viz. my castle, 

my country seat (which I called my  bower), and my  enclosure in the woods: nor did I look after this for  any 

other use  than an enclosure for my goats; for the aversion which  nature gave  me to these hellish wretches was 

such, that I was as  fearful of  seeing them as of seeing the devil himself.  I did not so  much as  go to look after 

my boat all this time, but began rather to  think  of making another; for I could not think of ever making any 

more  attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I  should meet with some of these creatures 

at sea; in which case, if  I  had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what would  have  been my lot. 



Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger  of being discovered by these people, began 

to wear off my  uneasiness  about them; and I began to live just in the same  composed manner as  before, only 

with this difference, that I used  more caution, and kept  my eyes more about me than I did before,  lest I should 

happen to be  seen by any of them; and particularly, I  was more cautious of firing  my gun, lest any of them, 

being on the  island, should happen to hear  it.  It was, therefore, a very good  providence to me that I had 

furnished myself with a tame breed of  goats, and that I had no need to  hunt any more about the woods, or 

shoot at them; and if I did catch  any of them after this, it was by  traps and snares, as I had done  before; so that 

for two years after  this I believe I never fired my  gun once off, though I never went  out without it; and what 

was more,  as I had saved three pistols out  of 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 great cutlasses that I had out  of the 

ship, and made me a  belt to hang it on also; so that I was now  a most formidable fellow  to look at when I 

went abroad, if you add to  the former description  of myself the particular of two pistols, and a  broadsword 

hanging  at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard. 



Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,  excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my 

former calm, sedate  way  of living.  All these things tended to show me more and more  how far  my condition 

was from being miserable, compared to some  others; nay,  to many other particulars of life which it might 

have  pleased God to  have made my lot.  It put me upon reflecting how  little repining there  would be among 

mankind at any condition of  life if people would rather  compare their condition with those that  were worse, in 

order to be  thankful, than be always comparing them  with those which are better,  to assist their murmurings 

and  complainings. 



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As in my present condition there were not really many things which  I wanted, so indeed I thought that the 

frights I had been in about  these savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own  preservation, had 

taken off the edge of my invention, for my own  conveniences; and I had dropped a good design, which I had 

once  bent  my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make some  of my  barley into malt, and then try 

to brew myself some beer.  This was  really a whimsical thought, and I reproved myself often  for the 

simplicity of it: for I presently saw there would be the  want of  several things necessary to the making my beer 

that it  would be  impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to preserve  it in, which  was a thing that, as I have 

observed already, 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 next  place, I had no hops to  make it keep, no yeast to made it work, no 

copper or kettle to make it  boil; and yet with all these things  wanting, I verily believe, had not  the frights and 

terrors I was in  about the savages intervened, I had  undertaken it, and perhaps  brought it to pass too; for I 

seldom gave  anything over without  accomplishing it, when once I had it in my head  to began it.  But  my 

invention now ran quite another way; for night  and day I could  think of nothing but how I might destroy 

some of the  monsters in  their cruel, bloody entertainment, and if possible save  the victim  they should bring 

hither to destroy.  It would take up a  larger  volume than this whole work is intended to be to set down all  the 

contrivances I hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts,  for  the destroying these creatures, or at least 

frightening them so as  to prevent their coming hither any more: but all this was abortive;  nothing could be 

possible to take effect, unless I was to be there  to  do it myself: and what could one man do among them, 

when perhaps  there  might be twenty or thirty of them together with their darts,  or their  bows and arrows, with 

which they could shoot as true to a  mark as I  could with my gun? 



Sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place where they  made their fire, and putting in five or six 

pounds of gunpowder,  which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire,  and blow up all that 

was near it: but as, in the first place, I  should be unwilling to waste so much powder upon them, my store 

being  now within the quantity of one barrel, so neither could I be  sure of  its going off at any certain time, 

when it might surprise  them; and,  at best, that it would do little more than just blow the  fire about  their ears 

and fright them, but not sufficient to make  them forsake  the place: so I laid it aside; and then proposed that  I 

would place  myself in ambush in some convenient place, with my  three guns all  double-loaded, and in the 

middle of their bloody  ceremony let fly at  them, when I should be sure to kill or wound  perhaps two or three 

at  every shot; and then falling in upon them  with my three pistols and my  sword, I made no doubt but that, if 

there were twenty, I should kill  them all.  This fancy pleased my  thoughts for some weeks, and I was so  full of 

it that I often  dreamed of it, and, sometimes, that I was just  going to let fly at  them in my sleep.  I went so far 

with it in my  imagination that I  employed myself several days to find out proper  places to put  myself in 

ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them, and I  went  frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more 

familiar  to me; but while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge  and  a bloody putting twenty or 

thirty of them to the sword, as I  may call  it, the horror I had at the place, and at the signals of  the barbarous 

wretches devouring one another, abetted my malice.  Well, at length I  found a place in the side of the hill 

where I was  satisfied I might  securely wait till I saw any of their boats  coming; and might then,  even before 

they would be ready to come on  shore, convey myself unseen  into some thickets of trees, in one of  which 

there was a hollow large  enough to conceal me entirely; and  there I might sit and observe all  their bloody 

doings, and take my  full aim at their heads, when they  were so close together as that  it would be next to 

impossible that I  should miss my shot, or that  I could fail wounding three or four of  them at the first shot.  In 

this place, then, I resolved to fulfil my  design; and accordingly I  prepared two muskets and my ordinary 

fowling-piece.  The two  muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each,  and four or five  smaller bullets, about 

the size of pistol bullets;  and the fowling-  piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot of  the largest  size; 

I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets  each; and,  in this posture, well provided with ammunition for 

a second  and  third charge, I prepared myself for my expedition. 



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

my tour every  morning to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as I  called  it, about three miles or 

more, to see if I could observe any  boats  upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing over  towards it; 



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but  I began to tire of this hard duty, after I had for  two or three months  constantly kept my watch, but came 

always back  without any discovery;  there having not, in all that time, been the  least appearance, not  only on 

or near the shore, but on the whole  ocean, so far as my eye or  glass could reach every way. 



As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out, so long  also I kept up the vigour of my design, and my 

spirits seemed to be  all the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution as  the killing twenty or 

thirty naked savages, for an offence which I  had not at all entered into any discussion of in my thoughts, any 

farther than my passions were at first fired by the horror I  conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of 

that country,  who,  it seems, had been suffered by Providence, in His wise  disposition of  the world, to have no 

other guide than that of their  own abominable  and vitiated passions; and consequently were left,  and perhaps 

had  been so for some ages, to act such horrid things,  and receive such  dreadful customs, as nothing but 

nature, entirely  abandoned by Heaven,  and actuated by some hellish degeneracy, could  have run them into. 

But now, when, as I have said, I began to be  weary of the fruitless  excursion which I had made so long and so 

far every morning in vain,  so my opinion of the action itself began  to alter; and I began, with  cooler and 

calmer thoughts, to consider  what I was going to engage in;  what authority or call I had to  pretend to be judge 

and executioner  upon these men as criminals,  whom Heaven had thought fit for so many  ages to suffer 

unpunished  to go on, and to be as it were the  executioners of His judgments  one upon another; how far these 

people  were offenders against me,  and what right I had to engage in the  quarrel of that blood which  they shed 

promiscuously upon one another.  I debated this very  often with myself thus: "How do I know what God 

Himself judges in  this particular case?  It is certain these people do  not commit  this as a crime; it is not against 

their own consciences  reproving,  or their light reproaching them; they do not know it to be  an  offence, and 

then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do  in almost all the sins we commit.  They think it no more 

a crime to  kill a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox; or to eat  human  flesh than we do to eat 

mutton." 



When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I was  certainly in the wrong; that these people 

were not murderers, in  the  sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any more  than  those 

Christians were murderers who often put to death the  prisoners  taken in battle; or more frequently, upon 

many occasions,  put whole  troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter,  though they threw  down their 

arms and submitted.  In the next  place, it occurred to me  that although the usage they gave one  another was 

thus brutish and  inhuman, yet it was really nothing to  me: these people had done me no  injury: that if they 

attempted, or  I saw it necessary, for my  immediate preservation, to fall upon  them, something might be said 

for  it: but that I was yet out of  their power, and they really had no  knowledge of me, and  consequently no 

design upon me; and therefore it  could not be just  for me to fall upon them; that this would justify  the 

conduct of  the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in  America, where  they destroyed millions of these 

people; who, however  they were  idolators and barbarians, and had several bloody and  barbarous  rites in their 

customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to  their  idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; 

and  that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the  utmost  abhorrence and detestation by even 

the Spaniards themselves  at this  time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a  mere  butchery, a 

bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty,  unjustifiable  either to God or man; and for which the very name of  a 

Spaniard is  reckoned to be frightful and terrible, to all people  of humanity or of  Christian compassion; as if 

the kingdom of Spain  were particularly  eminent for the produce of a race of men who were  without principles 

of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to  the miserable, which is  reckoned to be a mark of generous 

temper in  the mind. 



These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a  full stop; and I began by little and little to be 

off my design,  and  to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to  attack the  savages; and that it 

was not my business to meddle with  them, unless  they first attacked me; and this it was my business,  if 

possible, to  prevent: but that, if I were discovered and  attacked by them, I knew  my duty.  On the other hand, I 

argued with  myself that this really was  the way not to deliver myself, but  entirely to ruin and destroy  myself; 

for unless I was sure to kill  every one that not only should  be on shore at that time, but that  should ever come 



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on shore  afterwards, if but one of them escaped to  tell their country-people  what had happened, they would 

come over  again by thousands to revenge  the death of their fellows, and I  should only bring upon myself a 

certain destruction, which, at  present, I had no manner of occasion  for.  Upon the whole, I  concluded that I 

ought, neither in principle  nor in policy, one way  or other, to concern myself in this affair:  that my business 

was,  by all possible means to conceal myself from  them, and not to leave  the least sign for them to guess by 

that there  were any living  creatures upon the island - I mean of human shape.  Religion joined  in with this 

prudential resolution; and I was  convinced now, many  ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when I  was 

laying all my  bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent  creatures - I mean  innocent as to me.  As to the 

crimes they were  guilty of towards  one another, I had nothing to do with them; they  were national, and  I 

ought to leave them to the justice of God, who is  the Governor of  nations, and knows how, by national 

punishments, to  make a just   retribution for national offences, and to bring public  judgments  upon those who 

offend in a public manner, by such ways as  best  please Him.  This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing 

was a  greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to do  a  thing which I now saw so much 

reason to believe would have been  no  less a sin than that of wilful murder if I had committed it; and  I  gave 

most humble thanks on my knees to God, that He had thus  delivered  me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching 

Him to grant me the  protection of  His providence, that I might not fall into the hands  of the  barbarians, or that 

I might not lay my hands upon them,  unless I had a  more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of  my 

own life. 



In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so  far was I from desiring an occasion for falling 

upon these  wretches,  that in all that time I never once went up the hill to  see whether  there were any of them 

in sight, or to know whether any  of them had  been on shore there or not, that I might not be tempted  to renew 

any  of my contrivances against them, or be provoked by any  advantage that  might present itself to fall upon 

them; only this I  did: I went and  removed my boat, which I had on the other side of  the island, and  carried it 

down to the east end of the whole  island, where I ran it  into a little cove, which I found under some  high 

rocks, and where I  knew, by reason of the currents, the  savages durst not, at least would  not, come with their 

boats upon  any account whatever.  With my boat I  carried away everything that  I had left there belonging to 

her, though  not necessary for the  bare going thither - viz. a mast and sail which  I had made for her,  and a 

thing like an anchor, but which, indeed,  could not be called  either anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best 

I could make of  its kind: all these I removed, that there might not be  the least  shadow for discovery, or 

appearance of any boat, or of any  human  habitation upon the island.  Besides this, I kept myself, as I  said, 

more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell except  upon my constant employment, to milk my 

she-goats, and manage my  little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part  of  the island, was 

out of danger; for certain, it is that these  savage  people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with 

any  thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently never  wandered off  from the coast, and I doubt not 

but they might have  been several times  on shore after my apprehensions of them had made  me cautious, as 

well  as before.  Indeed, I looked back with some  horror upon the thoughts  of what my condition would have 

been if I  had chopped upon them and  been discovered before that; when, naked  and unarmed, except with one 

gun, and that loaded often only with  small shot, I walked everywhere,  peeping and peering about the  island, 

to see what I could get; what a  surprise should I have been  in if, when I discovered the print of a  man's foot, I 

had, instead  of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages,  and found them pursuing  me, and by the swiftness of their 

running no  possibility of my  escaping them!  The thoughts of this sometimes sank  my very soul  within me, 

and distressed my mind so much that I could  not soon  recover it, to think what I should have done, and how I 

should not  only have been unable to resist them, but even should not  have had  presence of mind enough to do 

what I might have done; much  less  what now, after so much consideration and preparation, I might be  able to 

do.  Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, I  would  be melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great 

while; but  I  resolved it all at last into thankfulness to that Providence  which had  delivered me from so many 

unseen dangers, and had kept me  from those  mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent in 

delivering  myself from, because I had not the least notion of any  such thing  depending, or the least 

supposition of its being  possible.  This  renewed a contemplation which often had come into  my thoughts in 

former times, when first I began to see the merciful  dispositions of  Heaven, in the dangers we run through in 



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this life;  how wonderfully we  are delivered 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 that way, a secret hint shall direct us  this way, when 

we intended  to go that way: nay, when sense, our own  inclination, and perhaps  business has called us to go 

the other  way, yet a strange impression  upon the mind, from we know not what  springs, and by we know not 

what  power, shall overrule us to go  this way; and it shall afterwards  appear that had we gone that way,  which 

we should have gone, and even  to our imagination ought to  have gone, we should have been ruined and  lost. 

Upon these and  many like reflections I afterwards made it a  certain rule with me,  that whenever I found those 

secret hints or  pressings of mind to  doing or not doing anything that presented, or  going this way or  that way, 

I never failed to obey the secret dictate;  though I knew  no other reason for it than such a pressure or such a 

hint hung  upon my mind.  I could give many examples of the success of  this  conduct in the course of my life, 

but more especially in the  latter  part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many  occasions  which it is 

very likely I might have taken notice of, if I  had seen  with the same eyes then that I see with now.  But it is 

never  too  late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men,  whose  lives are attended with such 

extraordinary incidents as mine, or  even though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret  intimations of 

Providence, let them come from what invisible  intelligence they will.  That I shall not discuss, and perhaps 

cannot  account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse  of  spirits, and a secret communication 

between those embodied and  those  unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of  which I  shall 

have occasion to give some remarkable instances in  the remainder  of my solitary residence in this dismal 

place. 



I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess  that these anxieties, these constant dangers I 

lived in, and the  concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to  all  the contrivances that I 

had laid for my future accommodations  and  conveniences.  I had the care of my safety more now upon my 

hands than  that of my food.  I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a  stick of wood  now, for fear the noise I might 

make should be heard:  much less would        I fire a gun for the same reason: and above all I  was intolerably 

uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is  visible at a great  distance in the day, should betray me. 

For this  reason, I removed  that part of my business which required fire,  such as burning of pots  and pipes, 

into my new apartment in  the woods; where, after I had been  some time, I found, to my  unspeakable 

consolation, a mere natural cave  in the earth, which  went in a vast way, and where, I daresay, no  savage, had 

he been at  the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to  venture in; nor, indeed,  would any man else, but one who, 

like me,  wanted nothing so much as  a safe retreat. 



The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where,  by mere accident (I would say, if I did not 

see abundant reason to  ascribe all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some  thick branches of 

trees to make charcoal; and before I go on I must  observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was 

this - I was  afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before;  and  yet I could not live there 

without baking my bread, cooking my  meat,  so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen  done in 

England,  under turf, till it became chark or dry coal: and  then putting the  fire out, I preserved the coal to carry 

home, and  perform the other  services for which fire was wanting, without  danger of smoke.  But  this is 

by-the-bye.  While I was cutting down  some wood here, I  perceived that, behind a very thick branch of low 

brushwood or  underwood, there was a kind of hollow place: I was  curious to look in  it; and getting with 

difficulty into the mouth  of it, I found it was  pretty large, that is to say, 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, I saw  two broad shining eyes of some  creature, 

whether devil or man I  knew not, which twinkled like two  stars; the dim light from the  cave's mouth shining 

directly in, and  making the reflection.  However, after some pause I recovered myself,  and began to call 

myself a thousand fools, and to think that he that  was afraid to  see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in 

an  island all  alone; and that I might well think there was nothing in  this cave  that was more frightful than 

myself.  Upon this, plucking up  my  courage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the  stick 

flaming in my hand: I had not gone three steps in before I       was  almost as frightened as before; for I heard a 

very loud sigh,  like  that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a broken  noise, as  of words half 



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expressed, and then a deep sigh again.  I  stepped back,  and was indeed struck with such a surprise that it  put 

me into a cold  sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I will  not answer for it  that my hair might not have 

lifted it off.  But  still plucking up my  spirits as well as I could, and encouraging  myself a little with 

considering that the power and presence of God  was everywhere, and was  able to protect me, I stepped 

forward  again, and by the light of the  firebrand, holding it up a little  over my head, I saw lying on the  ground 

a monstrous, frightful old  he-goat, just making his will, as we  say, and gasping for life,  and, dying, indeed, of 

mere old age.  I  stirred him a little to see  if I could get him out, and he essayed to  get up, but was not able  to 

raise himself; and I thought with myself  he might even lie there  - for if he had frightened me, so he would 

certainly fright any of  the savages, if any of them should be so hardy  as to come in there  while he had any life 

in him. 



I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me,  when I found the cave was but very 

small - that is to say, it might  be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round  nor square, 

no hands having ever been employed in making it but  those  of mere Nature.  I observed also that there was a 

place at  the farther  side of it that went in further, but was so low that it  required me to  creep upon my hands 

and knees to go into it, and  whither it went I  knew not; so, having no candle, I gave it over  for that time, but 

resolved to go again the next day provided with  candles and a  tinder-box, which I had made of the lock of 

one of  the muskets, with  some wildfire in the pan. 



Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of  my own making (for I made very good 

candles now of goat's tallow,  but  was hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-  yarn, and 

sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles); and  going into this  low place I was obliged to creep upon 

all-fours as   I have said, almost  ten yards - which, by the way, I thought was a  venture bold enough, 

considering that I knew not how far it might  go, nor what was beyond  it.  When I had got through the strait, I 

found the roof rose higher  up, I believe near twenty feet; but  never was such a glorious sight  seen in the 

island, I daresay, as  it was to look round the sides and  roof of this vault or cave - the  wall reflected a hundred 

thousand  lights to me from my two candles.  What it was in the rock - whether  diamonds or any other 

precious  stones, or gold which I rather supposed  it to be - I knew not.  The  place I was in was a most 

delightful  cavity, or grotto, though  perfectly dark; the floor was dry and level,  and had a sort of a  small loose 

gravel upon it, so that there was no  nauseous or  venomous creature to be seen, neither was there any damp  or 

wet on  the sides or roof.  The only difficulty in it was the     entrance -  which, however, as it was a place of 

security, and such a  retreat  as I wanted; I thought was a convenience; so that I was really  rejoiced at the 

discovery, and resolved, without any delay, to  bring  some of those things which I was most anxious about to 

this  place:  particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of  powder, and  all my spare arms - viz. two 

fowling-pieces - for I had  three in all -     and three muskets  - for of them I had eight in all;  so I kept in my 

castle only five, which stood ready mounted like  pieces of cannon on  my outmost fence, and were ready also 

to take  out upon any expedition.  Upon this occasion of removing my  ammunition I happened to open the 

barrel of powder which I took up  out of the sea, and which had been  wet, and I found that the water  had 

penetrated about three or four  inches into the powder on every  side, which caking and growing hard,  had 

preserved the inside like  a kernel in the shell, so that I had  near sixty pounds of very good  powder in the 

centre of the cask.  This  was a very agreeable  discovery to me at that time; so I carried all  away thither, never 

keeping above two or three pounds of powder with  me in my castle,  for fear of a surprise of any kind; I also 

carried  thither all the  lead I had left for bullets. 



I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who were said  to live in caves and holes in the rocks, 

where none could come at  them; for I persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five  hundred  savages were 

to hunt me, they could never find me out - or  if they  did, they would not venture to attack me here.  The old 

goat whom I  found expiring died in the mouth of the cave the next  day after I made  this discovery; and I 

found it much easier to dig  a great hole there,  and throw him in and cover him with earth, than  to drag him 

out; so I  interred him there, to prevent offence to my  nose. 



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                       CHAPTER XIII - WRECK OF A SPANISH  SHIP 



I WAS now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island,  and was so naturalised to the place and 

the manner of living, that,  could I but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come  to  the place to 

disturb me, I could have been content to have  capitulated     for spending the rest of my time there, even to the 

last moment, till  I had laid me down and died, like the old goat in  the cave.  I had  also arrived to some little 

diversions and  amusements, which made the  time pass a great deal more pleasantly  with me than it did before 

-  first, I had taught my Poll, as I  noted before, to speak; and he did  it so familiarly, and talked so  articulately 

and plain, that it was  very pleasant to me; and he  lived with me no less than six-and-twenty  years.  How long 

he might  have lived afterwards I know not, though I  know they have a notion  in the Brazils that they live a 

hundred years.  My dog was a  pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than  sixteen years  of my time, 

and then died of mere old age.  As for my  cats, they  multiplied, as I have observed, to that degree that I was 

obliged  to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring  me  and all I had; but at length, when 

the two old ones I brought with  me were gone, and after some time continually driving them from me,  and 

letting them have no provision with me, they all ran wild into  the woods, except two or three favourites, 

which I kept tame, and  whose young, when they had any, I always drowned; and these were  part  of my 

family.  Besides these I always kept two or three  household kids  about me, whom I taught to feed out of my 

hand; and  I had two more  parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all  call "Robin Crusoe,"  but none like 

my first; nor, indeed, did I  take the pains with any of  them that I had done with him.  I had  also several tame 

sea-fowls,  whose name I knew not, that I caught  upon the shore, and cut their  wings; and the little stakes 

which I  had planted before my castle-wall  being now grown up to a good  thick grove, these fowls all lived 

among  these low trees, and bred  there, which was very agreeable to me; so  that, as I said above, I  began to he 

very well contented with the life  I led, if I could  have been secured from the dread of the savages.  But it was 

otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people  who  shall meet with my story to make this just 

observation from it:  How  frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself  we  seek most to shun, 

and which, when we are fallen into, is the most  dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our 

deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the  affliction we are fallen into.  I could give many 

examples of this  in  the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more  particularly remarkable 

than in the circumstances of my last years  of  solitary residence in this island. 



It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-  third year; and this, being the southern 

solstice (for winter I  cannot call it), was the particular time of my harvest, and  required  me to be pretty much 

abroad in the fields, when, going out  early in  the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was 

surprised  with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a  distance from me  of about two miles, toward 

that part of the island  where I had  observed some savages had been, as before, and not on  the other side;  but, 

to my great affliction, it was on my side of  the island. 



I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short  within my grove, not daring to go out, lest I 

might be surprised;  and  yet I had no more peace within, from the apprehensions I had  that if  these savages, in 

rambling over the island, should find my  corn  standing or cut, or any of my works or improvements, they 

would   immediately conclude that there were people in the place, and  would  then never rest till they had found 

me out.  In this  extremity I went  back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder  after me, and made  all things 

without look as wild and natural as I  could. 



Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of  defence.  I loaded all my cannon, as I called 

them - that is to  say,  my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification - and  all my  pistols, and 

resolved to defend myself to the last gasp -  not  forgetting seriously to commend myself to the Divine 

protection, and  earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of the  hands of the  barbarians.  I continued in this 

posture about two  hours, and began to  be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had  no spies to send out. 

After sitting a while longer, and musing  what I should do in this  case, I was not able to bear sitting in 



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ignorance longer; so setting  up my ladder to the side of the hill,  where there was a flat place, as  I observed 

before, and then  pulling the ladder after me, I set it up  again and mounted the top  of the hill, and pulling out 

my perspective  glass, which I had  taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly  on the ground,  and 

began to look for the place.  I presently found  there were no  less than nine naked savages sitting round a small 

fire they had  made, not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the  weather  being extremely hot, but, as I 

supposed, to dress some of  their  barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them,          whether 

alive or dead I could not tell. 



They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the  shore; and as it was then ebb of tide, 

they seemed to me to wait  for  the return of the flood to go away again.  It is not easy to  imagine  what 

confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing  them come on  my side of the island, and so near to me; but 

when I   considered their  coming must be always with the current of the ebb,  I began afterwards  to be more 

sedate in my mind, being satisfied  that I might go abroad  with safety all the time of the flood of  tide, if they 

were not on   shore before; and having made this  observation, I went abroad about my  harvest work with the 

more  composure. 



As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the  westward I saw them all take boat and row (or 

paddle as we call it)  away.  I should have observed, that for an hour or more before they  went off they were 

dancing, and I could easily discern their  postures  and gestures by my glass.  I could not perceive, by my  nicest 

observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not the  least  covering upon them; but whether they were 

men or women I  could not  distinguish. 



As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my  shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, 

and my great sword by my  side without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make  went away to 

the hill where I had discovered the first appearance  of  all; and as soon as I get thither, which was not in less 

than  two  hours (for I could not go quickly, being so loaded with arms as  I  was), I perceived there had been 

three canoes more of the savages  at  that place; and looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea  together, 

making over for the main.  This was a dreadful sight to  me,  especially as, going down to the shore, I could see 

the marks  of  horror which the dismal work they had been about had left behind  it -  viz. the blood, the bones, 

and part of the flesh of human  bodies eaten  and devoured by those wretches with merriment and  sport.  I was 

so  filled with indignation at the sight, that I now  began to premeditate  the destruction of the next that I saw 

there,  let them be whom or how  many soever.  It seemed evident to me that  the visits which they made  thus to 

this island were not very  frequent, for it was above fifteen  months before any more of them  came on shore 

there again - that is to  say, I neither saw them nor  any footsteps or signals of them in all  that time; for as to 

the  rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come  abroad, at least not  so far.  Yet all this while I lived 

uncomfortably, by reason of the  constant apprehensions of their coming  upon me by surprise: from  whence I 

observe, that the expectation of  evil is more bitter than  the suffering, especially if there is no room  to shake 

off that  expectation or those apprehensions. 



During all this time I was in a murdering humour, and spent most of  my hours, which should have been better 

employed, in contriving how      to circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see  them  - 

especially if they should be divided, as they were the last  time,  into two parties; nor did I consider at all that if 

I killed  one party  - suppose ten or a dozen - I was still the next day, or  week, or  month, to kill another, and 

so another, even AD INFINITUM,  till I  should be, at length, no less a murderer than they were in  being 

man-eaters - and perhaps much more so.  I spent my days now  in great  perplexity and anxiety of mind, 

expecting that I should  one day or  other fall, into the hands of these merciless creatures;  and if I did  at any 

time venture abroad, it was not without looking  around me with  the greatest care and caution imaginable. 

And now I  found, to my  great comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a  tame flock or  herd of goats, 

for I durst not upon any account fire  my gun,  especially near that side of the island where they usually  came, 

lest  I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me  now, I was  sure to have them come again with 

perhaps two or three  hundred canoes  with them in a few days, and then I knew what to  expect.  However, I 



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wore out a year and three months more before I  ever saw any more of  the savages, and then I found them 

again, as I  shall soon observe.  It  is true they might have been there once or  twice; but either they made  no 

stay, or at least I did not see  them; but in the month of May, as  near as I could calculate, and in  my 

four-and-twentieth year, I had a  very strange encounter with  them; of which in its place. 



The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or sixteen months'  interval was very great; I slept unquietly, 

dreamed always  frightful  dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night.  In the day  great troubles 

overwhelmed my mind; and in the night I  dreamed often  of killing the savages and of the reasons why I 

might  justify doing  it. 



But to waive all this for a while.  It was in the middle of May, on  the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor 

wooden calendar  would  reckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was  on the  sixteenth of May that 

it blew a very great storm of wind all  day, with  a great deal of lightning and thunder, and; a very foul  night it 

was  after it.  I knew not what was the particular occasion  of it, but as I  was reading in the Bible, and taken up 

with very  serious thoughts  about my present condition, I was surprised with  the noise of a gun,  as I thought, 

fired at sea.  This was, to be  sure, a surprise quite of  a different nature from any I had met  with before; for the 

notions  this put into my thoughts were quite  of another kind.  I started up in  the greatest haste imaginable; 

and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to  the middle place of the rock,  and pulled it after me; and mounting it  the 

second time, got to the  top of the hill the very moment that a  flash of fire bid me listen  for a second gun, 

which, accordingly, in  about half a minute I  heard; and by the sound, knew that it was from  that part of the 

sea  where I was driven down the current in my boat.  I immediately  considered that this must be some ship in 

distress, and  that they  had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired  these  for signals of 

distress, and to obtain help.  I had the presence  of  mind at that minute to think, that though I could not help 

them, it  might be that they might help me; so I brought together all the dry  wood I could get at hand, and 

making a good handsome pile, I set it  on fire upon the hill.  The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and,  though 

the wind blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out; so that I  was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, 

they must needs  see it.  And no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed  up, I heard another gun, and 

after that several others, all from  the  same quarter.  I plied my fire all night long, till daybreak:  and when  it 

was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw something  at a great  distance at sea, full east of the island, 

whether a sail  or a hull I  could not distinguish - no, not with my glass: the  distance was so  great, and the 

weather still something hazy also;  at least, it was so  out at sea. 



I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it  did not move; so I presently concluded that it 

was a ship at  anchor;  and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took  my gun in my  hand, and ran 

towards the south side of the island to  the rocks where  I had formerly been carried away by the current;  and 

getting up there,  the weather by this time being perfectly    clear, I could plainly see,  to my great sorrow, the 

wreck of a  ship, cast away in the night upon  those concealed rocks which I  found when I was out in my boat; 

and  which rocks, as they checked  the violence of the stream, and made a  kind of counter-stream, or  eddy, 

were the occasion of my recovering  from the most desperate,  hopeless condition that ever I had been in in  all 

my life.  Thus,  what is one man's safety is another man's  destruction; for it seems  these men, whoever they 

were, being out of  their knowledge, and the  rocks being wholly under water, had been  driven upon them in 

the  night, the wind blowing hard at ENE.  Had they  seen the island, as  I must necessarily suppose they did 

not, they  must, as I thought,  have endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore  by the help of  their boat; 

but their firing off guns for help,  especially when  they saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me with many 

thoughts.  First, I imagined that upon seeing my light they might have  put  themselves into their boat, and 

endeavoured to make the shore: but  that the sea running very high, they might have been cast away.  Other 

times I imagined that they might have lost their boat before,  as might  be the case many ways; particularly by 

the breaking of the  sea upon  their ship, which many times obliged men to stave, or take  in pieces,  their boat, 

and sometimes to throw it overboard with  their own hands.  Other times I imagined they had some other ship 

or ships in company,  who, upon the signals of distress they made,  had taken them up, and  carried them off. 

Other times I fancied  they were all gone off to sea  in their boat, and being hurried away  by the current that I 



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had been  formerly in, were carried out into  the great ocean, where there was  nothing but misery and 

perishing:  and that, perhaps, they might by  this time think of starving, and  of being in a condition to eat one 

another. 



As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I  was in, I could do no more than look on upon 

the misery of the poor  men, and pity them; which had still this good effect upon my side,  that it gave me 

more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had  so  happily and comfortably provided for me in my 

desolate  condition; and  that of two ships' companies, who were now cast away  upon this part of  the world, 

not one life should be spared but  mine.  I learned here  again to observe, that it is very rare that  the providence 

of God  casts us into any condition so low, or any  misery so great, but we may  see something or other to be 

thankful  for, and may see others in worse  circumstances than our own.  Such  certainly was the case of these 

men,  of whom I could not so much as  see room to suppose any were saved;  nothing could make it rational  so 

much as to wish or expect that they  did not all perish there,  except the possibility only of their being  taken up 

by another ship  in company; and this was but mere possibility  indeed, for I saw not  the least sign or 

appearance of any such thing.  I cannot explain,  by any possible energy of words, what a strange  longing I felt 

in  my soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes  thus: "Oh that  there had been but one or two, nay, or but 

one soul  saved out of  this ship, to have escaped to me, that I might but have  had one  companion, one 

fellow-creature, to have spoken to me and to  have  conversed with!"  In all the time of my solitary life I never 

felt  so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-  creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of 

it. 



There are some secret springs in the affections which, when they  are set a-going by some object in view, or, 

though not in view, yet  rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that  motion  carries out the 

soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent,  eager  embracings of the object, that the absence of it is 

insupportable.  Such were these earnest wishings that but one man  had been saved.  I  believe I repeated the 

words, "Oh that it had  been but one!" a  thousand times; and my desires were so moved by  it, that when I 

spoke  the words my hands would clinch together, and  my fingers would press  the palms of my hands, so that 

if I had had   any soft thing in my hand  I should have crushed it involuntarily;  and the teeth in my head would 

strike together, and set against one  another so strong, that for some  time I could not part them again.  Let the 

naturalists explain these  things, and the reason and manner  of them.  All I can do is to  describe the fact, which 

was even  surprising to me when I found it,  though I knew not from whence it  proceeded; it was doubtless the 

effect of ardent wishes, and of  strong ideas formed in my mind,  realising the comfort which the  conversation 

of one of my  fellow-Christians would have been to me.  But it was not to be; either  their fate or mine, or both, 

forbade  it; for, till the last year of my  being on this island, I never  knew whether any were saved out of that 

ship or no; and had only  the affliction, some days after, to see the  corpse of a drowned boy  come on shore at 

the end of the island which  was next the  shipwreck.  He had no clothes on but a seaman's  waistcoat, a pair  of 

open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt;  but nothing to  direct me so much as to guess what nation he 

was of.  He had  nothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight and a tobacco  pipe -  the last was to me of ten 

times more value than the first. 



It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat  to this wreck, not doubting but I might find 

something on board  that  might be useful to me.  But that did not altogether press me  so much  as the 

possibility that there might be yet some living  creature on  board, whose life I might not only save, but might, 

by  saving that  life, comfort my own to the last degree; and this  thought clung so to  my heart that I could not 

be quiet night or  day, but I must venture  out in my boat on board this wreck; and  committing the rest to God's 

providence, I thought the impression  was so strong upon my mind that  it could not be resisted - that it  must 

come from some invisible  direction, and that I should be  wanting to myself if I did not go. 



Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,  prepared everything for my voyage, took a 

quantity of bread, a  great  pot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum  (for I had  still a great deal 

of that left), and a basket of  raisins; and thus,  loading myself with everything necessary.  I  went down to my 



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boat, got  the water out of her, got her afloat,  loaded all my cargo in her, and  then went home again for more. 

My  second cargo was a great bag of  rice, the umbrella to set up over  my head for a shade, another large  pot of 

water, and about two  dozen of small loaves, or barley cakes,  more than before, with a  bottle of goat's milk 

and a cheese; all which  with great labour and  sweat I carried to my boat; and praying to God  to direct my 

voyage,  I put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along  the shore, came  at last to the utmost point of the 

island on the  north-east side.  And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and  either to venture  or not to 

venture.  I looked on the rapid currents  which ran  constantly on both sides of the island at a distance, and 

which  were very terrible to me from the remembrance of the hazard I  had  been in before, and my heart began 

to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those currents, I should be carried  a  great way out 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 wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost. 



These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my  enterprise; and having hauled my boat 

into a little creek on the  shore, I stepped out, and sat down upon a rising bit of ground,  very  pensive and 

anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage;  when,  as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was 

turned,  and the  flood come on; upon which my going was impracticable for so  many  hours.  Upon this, 

presently it occurred to me that I should  go up to  the highest piece of ground I could find, and observe, if  I 

could, how  the sets of the tide or currents lay when the flood  came in, that I  might judge whether, if I was 

driven one way out, I  might not expect  to be driven another way home, with the same  rapidity of the currents. 

This thought was no sooner in my head  than I cast my eye upon a  little hill which sufficiently overlooked  the 

sea both ways, and from  whence I had a clear view of the  currents or sets of the tide, and  which way I was to 

guide myself  in my return.  Here I found, that as  the current of ebb set out  close by the south point of the 

island, so  the current of the flood  set in close by the shore of the north side;  and that I had nothing  to do but to 

keep to the north side of the  island in my return, and  I should do well enough. 



Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to set  out with the first of the tide; and reposing 

myself for the night  in  my canoe, under the watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out.  I  first  made a little out to 

sea, full north, till I began to feel  the benefit  of the current, which set eastward, and which carried  me at a 

great  rate; and yet did not so hurry me as the current on  the south side had  done before, so as to take from me 

all  government of the boat; but  having a strong steerage with my  paddle, I went at a great rate  directly for the 

wreck, and in less  than two hours I came up to it.  It was a dismal sight to look at;  the ship, which by its 

building was  Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in  between two rocks.  All the stern and  quarter of her were beaten 

to  pieces by the sea; and as her  forecastle, which stuck in the rocks,  had run on with great violence,  her 

mainmast and foremast were      brought by the board - that is to say,  broken short off; but her  bowsprit was 

sound, and the head and bow     appeared firm.  When I  came close to her, a dog appeared upon her,  who, seeing 

me coming,  yelped and cried; and as soon as I called him,  jumped into the sea  to come to me.  I took him into 

the boat, but  found him almost dead  with hunger and thirst.  I gave him a cake of my  bread, and he  devoured it 

like a ravenous wolf that had been starving  a fortnight  in the snow; I then gave the poor creature some fresh 

water, with  which, if I would have let him, he would have burst  himself.  After  this I went on board; but the 

first sight I met with  was two men  drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with  their  arms fast 

about one another.  I concluded, as is indeed  probable,  that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea 

broke so  high and so continually over her, that the men were not able  to  bear it, and were strangled with the 

constant rushing in of the  water, as much as if they had been under water.  Besides the dog,  there was nothing 

left in the ship that had life; nor any goods,  that  I could see, but what were spoiled by the water.  There were 

some  casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay  lower in  the hold, and which, the water 

being ebbed out, I could  see; but they  were too big to meddle with.  I saw several chests,  which I believe 

belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of  them into the boat,  without examining what was in them. 

Had the  stern of the ship been  fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am  persuaded I might have made a  good 

voyage; for by what I found in  those two chests I had room to  suppose the ship had a great deal of  wealth on 

board; and, if I may  guess from the course she steered,  she must have been bound from  Buenos Ayres, or the 

Rio de la Plata,  in the south part of America,  beyond the Brazils to the Havannah,  in the Gulf of Mexico, and 



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so  perhaps to Spain.  She had, no doubt,  a great treasure in her, but of  no use, at that time, to anybody;  and 

what became of the crew I then  knew not. 



I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of  about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat 

with much  difficulty.  There were several muskets in the cabin, and a great  powder-horn,  with about four 

pounds of powder in it; as for the  muskets, I had no  occasion for them, so I left them, but took the 

powder-horn.  I took a  fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted  extremely, as also two little  brass kettles, a 

copper pot to make  chocolate, and a gridiron; and  with this cargo, and the dog, I came  away, the tide 

beginning to make  home again - and the same evening,  about an hour within night, I  reached the island 

again, weary and  fatigued to the last degree.  I  reposed that night in the boat and  in the morning I resolved to 

harbour what I had got in my new cave,  and not carry it home to my  castle.  After refreshing myself, I got  all 

my cargo on shore, and  began to examine the particulars.  The  cask of liquor I found to be a  kind of rum, but 

not such as we had  at the Brazils; and, in a word,  not at all good; but when I came to  open the chests, I found 

several  things of great use to me - for  example, I found in one a fine case of  bottles, of an extraordinary  kind, 

and filled with cordial waters,  fine and very good; the  bottles held about three pints each, and were  tipped 

with silver.  I found two pots of very good succades, or  sweetmeats, so fastened  also on the top that the 

salt-water had not  hurt them; and two more  of the same, which the water had spoiled.  I  found some very 

good  shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about  a dozen and a half  of white linen handkerchiefs and 

coloured  neckcloths; the former  were also very welcome, being exceedingly  refreshing to wipe my  face in a 

hot day.  Besides this, when I came to  the till in the  chest, I found there three great bags of pieces of  eight, 

which  held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of  them,  wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of 

gold, and some small  bars  or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a pound.  In  the other chest 

were some clothes, but of little value; but, by  the  circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's mate; 

though  there was no powder in it, except two pounds of fine glazed powder,  in three flasks, kept, I suppose, 

for charging their fowling-pieces  on occasion.  Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage that  was of 

any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner of  occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet, 

and I  would  have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and  stockings, which were things I greatly 

wanted, but had had none on  my  feet for many years.  I had, indeed, got two pair of shoes now,  which  I took 

off the feet of two drowned men whom I saw in the  wreck, and I  found two pair more in one of the chests, 

which were  very welcome to  me; but they were not like our English shoes,  either for ease or  service, being 

rather what we call pumps than  shoes.  I found in this  seaman's chest about fifty pieces of eight,  in rials, but 

no gold: I  supposed this belonged to a poorer man  than the other, which seemed to  belong to some officer. 

Well,  however, I lugged this money home to my  cave, and laid it up, as I  had done that before which I had 

brought  from our own ship; but it  was a great pity, as I said, that the other  part of this ship had  not come to 

my share: for I am satisfied I might  have loaded my  canoe several times over with money; and, thought I, if  I 

ever  escape to England, it might lie here safe enough till I come  again  and fetch it. 



                             CHAPTER XIV - A DREAM REALISED 



HAVING now brought all my things on shore and secured them, I went  back to my boat, and rowed or 

paddled her along the shore to her  old  harbour, where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my  old 

habitation, where I found everything safe and quiet.  I began  now to  repose myself, live after my old fashion, 

and take care of  my family  affairs; and for a while I lived easy enough, only that I  was more  vigilant than I 

used to be, looked out oftener, and did  not go abroad  so much; and if at any time I did stir with any  freedom, 

it was always  to the east part of the island, where I was  pretty well satisfied the  savages never came, and 

where I could go  without so many precautions,  and such a load of arms and ammunition  as I always carried 

with me if  I went the other way.  I lived in  this condition near two years more;  but my unlucky head, that was 

always to let me know it was born to  make my body miserable, was  all these two years filled with projects 

and designs how, if it  were possible, I might get away from this  island: for sometimes I  was for making 

another voyage to the wreck,    though my reason told  me that there was nothing left there worth the      hazard of 



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my voyage;  sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another  - and I believe  verily, if I had had the boat 

that I went from Sallee  in, I should  have ventured to sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither.  I have  been, in 

all my circumstances, a memento to those who are  touched  with the general plague of mankind, whence, for 

aught I know,  one  half of their miseries flow: I mean that of not being satisfied  with the station wherein God 

and Nature hath placed them - for, not  to look back upon my primitive condition, and the excellent advice  of 

my father, the opposition to which was, as I may call it, my  ORIGINAL  SIN, my subsequent mistakes of the 

same kind had been the  means of my  coming into this miserable condition; for had that  Providence which so 

happily seated me at the Brazils as a planter  blessed me with confined  desires, and I could have been 

contented  to have gone on gradually, I  might have been by this time - I mean  in the time of my being in this 

island - one of the most  considerable planters in the Brazils - nay, I  am persuaded, that by  the improvements 

I had made in that little time  I lived there, and  the increase I should probably have made if I had  remained, I 

might  have been worth a hundred thousand moidores - and  what business had  I to leave a settled fortune, a 

well-stocked  plantation, improving  and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to  fetch negroes, when 

patience and time would have so increased our  stock at home, that  we could have bought them at our own 

door from  those whose business  it was to fetch them? and though it had cost us  something more, yet  the 

difference of that price was by no means worth  saving at so  great a hazard.  But as this is usually the fate of 

young   heads, so  reflection upon the folly of it is as commonly the exercise  of more  years, or of the 

dear-bought experience of time - so it was  with me  now; and yet so deep had the mistake taken root in my 

temper,  that  I could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continually  poring upon the means and 

possibility of my escape from this place;  and that I may, with greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the 

remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give some  account of my first conceptions on the 

subject of this foolish  scheme  for my escape, and how, and upon what foundation, I acted. 



I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my late  voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and 

secured under water, as  usual, and my condition restored to what it was before: I had more  wealth, indeed, 

than I had before, but was not at all the richer;  for  I had no more use for it than the Indians of Peru had before 

the  Spaniards came there. 



It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the four-  and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in 

this island of  solitude, I was lying in my bed or hammock, awake, very well in  health, had no pain, no 

distemper, no uneasiness of body, nor any  uneasiness of mind more than ordinary, but could by no means 

close  my  eyes, that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long,  otherwise than as follows: It is impossible 

to set down the  innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great  thoroughfare of the brain, the 

memory, in this night's time.  I ran  over the whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment,  as  I may 

call it, to my coming to this island, and also of that  part of  my life since I came to this island.  In my 

reflections  upon the state  of my case since I came on shore on this island, I  was comparing the  happy posture 

of my affairs in the first years of  my habitation here,  with the life of anxiety, fear, and care which  I had lived 

in ever  since I had seen the print of a foot in the  sand.  Not that I did not  believe the savages had frequented 

the  island even all the while, and  might have been several hundreds of  them at times on shore there; but  I had 

never known it, and was  incapable of any apprehensions about it;  my satisfaction was  perfect, though my 

danger was the same, and I was  as happy in not  knowing my danger as if I had never really been  exposed to 

it.  This furnished my thoughts with many very profitable     reflections,  and particularly this one: How infinitely 

good that  Providence is,  which has provided, in its government of mankind, such  narrow  bounds to his sight 

and knowledge of things; and though he  walks in  the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, 

if  discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his spirits, he  is kept serene and calm, by having the 

events of things hid from  his  eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him. 



After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to  reflect seriously upon the real danger I had 

been in for so many  years in this very island, and how I had walked about in the  greatest  security, and with all 

possible tranquillity, even when  perhaps  nothing but the brow of a hill, a great tree, or the casual  approach  of 

night, had been between me and the worst kind of  destruction - viz.  that of falling into the hands of cannibals 



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and  savages, who would  have seized on me with the same view as I would  on a goat or turtle;  and have 

thought it no more crime to kill and  devour me than I did of  a pigeon or a curlew.  I would unjustly  slander 

myself if I should say  I was not sincerely thankful to my  great Preserver, to whose singular  protection I 

acknowledged, with  great humanity, all these unknown  deliverances were due, and  without which I must 

inevitably have fallen  into their merciless  hands. 



When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken up  in considering the nature of these 

wretched creatures, I mean the  savages, and how it came to pass in the world that the wise  Governor  of all 

things should give up any of His creatures to such  inhumanity -  nay, to something so much below even 

brutality itself  - as to devour  its own kind: but as this ended in some (at that  time) fruitless  speculations, it 

occurred to me to inquire what  part of the world  these wretches lived in? how far off the coast  was from 

whence they  came? what they ventured over so far from home  for? what kind of boats  they had? and why I 

might not order myself  and my business so that I  might be able to go over thither, as they  were to come to 

me? 



I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do  with myself when I went thither; what would 

become of me if I fell  into the hands of these savages; or how I should escape them if  they  attacked me; no, 

nor so much as how it was possible for me to  reach  the coast, and not to be attacked by some or other of 

them,  without  any possibility of delivering myself: and if I should not  fall into  their hands, what I should do 

for provision, or whither I  should bend  my course: none of these thoughts, I say, so much as  came in my way; 

but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my  passing over in my  boat to the mainland.  I looked upon 

my present  condition as the most  miserable that could possibly be; that I was  not able to throw myself  into 

anything but death, that could be  called worse; and if I reached  the shore of the main I might  perhaps meet 

with relief, or I might  coast along, as I did on the  African shore, till I came to some  inhabited country, and 

where I  might find some relief; and after all,  perhaps I might fall in with  some Christian ship that might take 

me  in: and if the worst came to  the worst, I could but die, which would  put an end to all these  miseries at 

once.  Pray note, all this was the  fruit of a disturbed  mind, an impatient temper, made desperate, as it  were, by 

the long  continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments  I had met in  the wreck I had been on board of, 

and where I had been so  near  obtaining what I so earnestly longed for - somebody to speak to,  and to learn 

some knowledge from them of the place where I was, and         of the probable means of my deliverance.  I was 

agitated wholly by  these thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation to  Providence,  and waiting the 

issue of the dispositions of Heaven,  seemed to be  suspended; and I had as it were no power to turn my 

thoughts to  anything but to the project of a voyage to the main,  which came upon  me with such force, and 

such an impetuosity of  desire, that it was not  to be resisted. 



When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with such  violence that it set my very blood into a 

ferment, and my pulse  beat  as if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary  fervour of  my mind 

about it, Nature - as if I had been fatigued and  exhausted  with the very thoughts of it - threw me into a sound 

sleep.  One would  have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I  did not, nor of  anything relating to it, but I 

dreamed that as I  was going out in the  morning as usual from my castle, I saw upon  the shore two canoes and 

eleven savages coming to land, and that  they brought with them another  savage whom they were going to kill 

in order to eat him; when, on a  sudden, the savage that they were  going to kill jumped away, and ran  for his 

life; and I thought in  my sleep that he came running into my  little thick grove before my  fortification, to hide 

himself; and that  I seeing him alone, and  not perceiving that the others sought him that  way, showed myself 

to him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that  he kneeled down  to me, seeming to pray me to assist 

him; upon which I  showed him my  ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave,  and he became  my 

servant; and that as soon as I had got this man, I  said to  myself, "Now I may certainly venture to the 

mainland, for this  fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and  whither to go for 

provisions, and whither not to go for fear of  being  devoured; what places to venture into, and what to shun."  I 

waked  with this thought; and was under such inexpressible  impressions of joy  at the prospect of my escape in 

my dream, that  the disappointments  which I felt upon coming to myself, and finding  that it was no more  than 



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a dream, were equally extravagant the  other way, and threw me  into a very great dejection of spirits. 



Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go  about to attempt an escape was, to 

endeavour to get a savage into  my  possession: and, if possible, it should be one of their  prisoners,  whom they 

had condemned to be eaten, and should bring  hither to kill.  But these thoughts still were attended with this 

difficulty: that it  was impossible to effect this without attacking  a whole caravan of  them, and killing them 

all; and this was not  only a very desperate  attempt, and might miscarry, but, on the  other hand, I had greatly 

scrupled the lawfulness of it to myself;  and my heart trembled at the  thoughts of shedding so much blood, 

though it was for my deliverance.  I need not repeat the arguments  which occurred to me against this,  they 

being the same mentioned  before; but though I had other reasons  to offer now - viz. that  those men were 

enemies to my life, and would  devour me if they  could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest  degree, to 

deliver myself from this death of a life, and was acting in  my own  defence as much as if they were actually 

assaulting me, and the  like; I say though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of  shedding human blood 

for my deliverance were very terrible to me,  and  such as I could by no means reconcile myself to for a great 

while.  However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself,  and after  great perplexities about it (for all 

these arguments, one  way and  another, struggled in my head a long time), the eager  prevailing  desire of 

deliverance at length mastered all the rest;  and I resolved,  if possible, to get one of these savages into my 

hands, cost what it  would.  My next thing was to contrive how to do  it, and this, indeed,  was very difficult to 

resolve on; but as I  could pitch upon no  probable means for it, so I resolved to put  myself upon the watch, to 

see them when they came on shore, and  leave the rest to the event;  taking such measures as the  opportunity 

should present, let what would  be. 



With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout  as often as possible, and 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 of that time 

went out to the west end, and to the south-  west corner of the island almost every day, to look for canoes, but 

none appeared.  This was very discouraging, and began to trouble me  much, though I cannot say that it did in 

this case (as it had done  some time before) wear off the edge of my desire to the thing; but  the longer it 

seemed to be delayed, the more eager I was for it: in  a  word, I was not at first so careful to shun the sight of 

these  savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now eager to be  upon  them.  Besides, I fancied myself 

able to manage one, nay, two  or three  savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely slaves  to me, to  do 

whatever I should direct them, and to prevent their  being able at  any time to do me any hurt.  It was a great 

while  that I pleased  myself with this affair; but nothing still presented  itself; all my  fancies and schemes came 

to nothing, for no savages  came near me for a  great while. 



About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and by  long musing had, as it were, resolved them 

all into nothing, for  want  of an occasion to put them into execution), I was surprised  one  morning by seeing 

no less than five canoes all on shore  together on my  side the island, and the people who belonged to them  all 

landed and  out of my sight.  The number of them broke all my  measures; for seeing  so many, and knowing 

that they always came  four or six, or sometimes  more in a boat, I could not tell what to  think of it, or how to 

take  my measures to attack twenty or thirty  men single-handed; so lay still  in my castle, perplexed and 

discomforted.  However, I put myself into  the same position for an  attack that I had formerly provided, and 

was  just ready for action,  if anything had presented.  Having waited a  good while, listening  to hear if they 

made any noise, at length, being  very impatient, I  set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and .clambered  up to 

the top  of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so,  however, that  my head did not appear above the 

hill, so that they  could not  perceive me by any means.  Here I observed, by the help of  my  perspective glass, 

that they were no less than thirty in number;  that they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed.  How 

they had cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but they were all  dancing, in I know not how many barbarous 

gestures and figures,  their  own way, round the fire. 



While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective,  two miserable wretches dragged from the 

boats, where, it seems,  they   were laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter.  I  perceived  one of them 



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immediately fall; being knocked down, I  suppose, with a  club or wooden sword, for that was their way; and 

two or three others  were at work immediately, cutting him open for  their cookery, while  the other victim was 

left standing by himself,  till they should be  ready for him.  In that very moment this poor  wretch, seeing 

himself a  little at liberty and unbound, Nature  inspired him with hopes of life,  and he started away from them, 

and  ran with incredible swiftness along  the sands, directly towards me;  I mean towards that part of the coast 

where my habitation was.  I  was dreadfully frightened, I must  acknowledge, when I perceived him  run my 

way; and especially when, as  I thought, I saw him pursued by  the whole body: and now I expected  that part of 

my dream was coming  to pass, and that he would certainly  take shelter in my grove; but  I could not depend, 

by any means, upon  my dream, that the other  savages would not pursue him thither and find  him there. 

However,  I kept my station, and my spirits began to  recover when I found  that there was not above three men 

that followed  him; and still  more was I encouraged, when I found that he outstripped  them  exceedingly in 

running, and gained ground on them; so that, if he  could but hold out for half-an-hour, I saw easily he would 

fairly  get  away from them all. 



There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned  often in the first part of my story, where 

I landed my cargoes out  of  the ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over,  or the  poor wretch 

would be taken there; but when the savage  escaping came  thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was 

then up; but  plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes, or  thereabouts,  landed, and ran with exceeding 

strength and swiftness.  When the three  persons came to the creek, I found that two of them  could swim, but 

the third could not, and that, standing on the  other side, he looked  at the others, but went no farther, and soon 

after went softly back  again; which, as it happened, was very well  for him in the end.  I  observed that the two 

who swam were yet more  than twice as strong  swimming over the creek as the fellow was that  fled from 

them.  It  came very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed  irresistibly, that now  was the time to get me a 

servant, and,  perhaps, a companion or  assistant; and that I was plainly called by  Providence to save this  poor 

creature's life.  I immediately ran  down the ladders with all  possible expedition, fetched my two guns,  for they 

were both at the  foot of the ladders, as I observed  before, and getting up again with  the same haste to the top 

of the  hill, I crossed towards the sea; and  having a very short cut, and  all down hill, placed myself in the way 

between the pursuers and  the pursued, hallowing aloud to him that  fled, who, looking back,  was at first 

perhaps as much frightened at me  as at them; but I  beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in  the 

meantime, I  slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then  rushing at once  upon the foremost, I 

knocked him down with the stock  of my piece.  I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest  hear; 

though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard,  and  being out of sight of the smoke, too, they 

would not have known  what to make of it.  Having knocked this fellow down, the other who  pursued him 

stopped, as if he had been frightened, and I advanced  towards him: but as I came nearer, I perceived presently 

he had a  bow  and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then  obliged to  shoot at him first, which I 

did, and killed him at the  first shot.  The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he  saw both his 

enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so  frightened with  the fire and noise of my piece that he 

stood stock  still, and neither  came forward nor went backward, though he seemed  rather inclined still  to fly 

than to come on.  I hallooed again to  him, and made signs to  come forward, which he easily understood,  and 

came a little way; then  stopped again, and then a little  farther, and stopped again; and I  could then perceive 

that he stood  trembling, as if he had been taken  prisoner, and had just been to  be killed, as his two enemies 

were.  I  beckoned to him again to  come to me, and gave him all the signs of  encouragement that I  could think 

of; and he came nearer and nearer,  kneeling down every  ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment  for 

saving his  life.  I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and  beckoned to him  to come still nearer; at length he 

came close to me;  and then he  kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid his head  upon the       ground, and 

taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head;  this,  it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave for 

ever.  I  took  him up and made much of him, and encouraged him all I could.  But  there was more work to do 

yet; for I perceived the savage whom I  had  knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and 

began to  come to himself: so I pointed to him, and showed him the  savage, that  he was not dead; upon this he 

spoke some words to me,  and though I  could not understand them, yet I thought they were  pleasant to hear; 

for they were the first sound of a man's voice  that I had heard, my  own excepted, for above twenty-five 



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years.  But there was no time for  such reflections now; the savage who was  knocked down recovered  himself 

so far as to sit up upon the ground,  and I perceived that my  savage began to be afraid; but when I saw  that, I 

presented my other  piece at the man, as if I would shoot  him: upon this my savage, for so  I call him now, 

made a motion to  me to lend him my sword, which hung  naked in a belt by my side,  which I did.  He no 

sooner had it, but he  runs to his enemy, and at  one blow cut off his head so cleverly, no  executioner in 

Germany  could have done it sooner or better; which I  thought very strange  for one who, I had reason to 

believe, never saw a  sword in his life  before, except their own wooden swords: however, it  seems, as I 

learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so  sharp, so  heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will 

even cut off  heads  with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too.  When he had  done this, he comes 

laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought  me  the sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I 

did not  understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had  killed, just before me.  But that which 

astonished him most was to  know how I killed the other Indian so far off; so, pointing to him,  he made signs 

to me to let him go to him; and I bade him go, as  well  as I could.  When he came to him, he stood like one 

amazed,  looking at  him, turning him first on one side, then on the other;  looked at the  wound the bullet had 

made, which it seems was just in  his breast,  where it had made a hole, and no great quantity of  blood had 

followed;  but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite  dead.  He took up his bow  and arrows, and came back; so 

I turned to  go away, and beckoned him to  follow me, making signs to him that  more might come after them. 

Upon  this he made signs to me that he  should bury them with sand, that they  might not be seen by the  rest, if 

they followed; and so I made signs  to him again to do so.  He fell to work; and in an instant he had  scraped a 

hole in the  sand with his hands big enough to bury the first  in, and then  dragged him into it, and covered him; 

and did so by the  other also; I believe he had him buried them both in a quarter of an  hour.  Then, calling 

away, I carried him, not to my castle, but quite  away  to my cave, on the farther part of the island: so I did not 

let  my  dream come to pass in that part, that he came into my grove for  shelter.  Here I gave him bread and a 

bunch of raisins to eat, and  a  draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress  for,  from his 

running: and having refreshed him, I made signs for  him to go  and lie down to sleep, showing him a place 

where I had  laid some  rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep  upon myself  sometimes; so the 

poor creature lay down, and went to  sleep. 



He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with  straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and 

well-shaped; and,  as  I reckon, about twenty-six years of age.  He had a very good  countenance, not a fierce 

and surly aspect, but seemed to have  something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness  and 

softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially when  he smiled.  His hair was long and black, not 

curled like wool; his  forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and sparkling  sharpness in his eyes. 

The colour of his skin was not quite black,  but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as 

the  Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of  a  bright kind of a dun olive-colour, 

that had in it something very  agreeable, though not very easy to describe.  His face was round  and  plump; his 

nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very good  mouth,  thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as 

ivory. 



After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-an-hour, he  awoke again, and came out of the cave to 

me: for I had been milking  my goats which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied me he  came 

running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with  all the possible signs of an humble, thankful 

disposition, making a  great many antic gestures to show it.  At last he lays his head  flat  upon the ground, close 

to my foot, and sets my other foot upon  his  head, as he had done before; and after this made all the signs  to 

me  of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let  me know  how he would serve me so long as he 

lived.  I understood  him in many  things, and let him know I was very well pleased with  him.  In a  little time I 

began to speak to him; and teach him to  speak to me: and  first, I let him know his name should be Friday, 

which was the day I  saved his life: I called him so for the memory  of the time.  I  likewise taught him to say 

Master; and then let him  know that was to  be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and  No and to know 

the  meaning of them.  I gave him some milk in an  earthen pot, and let him  see me drink it before him, and sop 

my  bread in it; and gave him a  cake of bread to do the like, which he  quickly complied with, and made  signs 



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that it was very good for  him.  I kept there with him all that  night; but as soon as it was  day I beckoned to him 

to come with me,  and let him know I would  give him some clothes; at which he seemed  very glad, for he was 

stark naked.  As we went by the place where he  had buried the two  men, he pointed exactly to the place, and 

showed me  the marks that  he had made to find them again, making signs to me that  we should  dig them up 

again and eat them.  At this I appeared very  angry,  expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at 

the  thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away,  which  he did immediately, with great 

submission.  I then led him up  to the  top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; and  pulling out my  glass I 

looked, and saw plainly the place where they  had been, but no  appearance of them or their canoes; so that it 

was  plain they were  gone, and had left their two comrades behind them,  without any search  after them. 



But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more  courage, and consequently more curiosity, I 

took my man Friday with  me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at  his  back, which I 

found he could use very dexterously, making him  carry  one gun for me, and I two for myself; and away we 

marched to  the place  where these creatures had been; for I had a mind now to  get some  further intelligence of 

them.  When I came to the place my  very blood  ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, at  the 

horror of  the spectacle; indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at  least it was so to  me, though Friday made nothing of 

it.  The place  was covered with  human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, and  great pieces of  flesh left 

here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and  scorched; and, in  short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast  they 

had been making  there, after a victory over their enemies.  I  saw three skulls, five  hands, and the bones of 

three or four legs  and feet, and abundance of  other parts of the bodies; and Friday,  by his signs, made me 

understand that they brought over four  prisoners to feast upon; that  three of them were eaten up, and that  he, 

pointing to himself, was the  fourth; that there had been a  great battle between them and their next  king, of 

whose subjects,  it seems, he had been one, and that they had  taken a great number  of prisoners; all which 

were carried to several  places by those who  had taken them in the fight, in order to feast  upon them, as was 

done here by these wretches upon those they brought  hither. 



I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and  whatever remained, and lay them together in a heap, 

and make a  great  fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes.  I found Friday had  still a  hankering stomach after 

some of the flesh, and was still a  cannibal in  his nature; but I showed so much abhorrence at the very 

thoughts of  it, and at the least appearance of it, that he durst  not discover it:  for I had, by some means, let him 

know that I  would kill him if he  offered it. 



When he had done this, we came back to our castle; and there I fell  to work for my man Friday; and first of 

all, I gave him a pair of  linen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I  mentioned, which I found 

in the wreck, and which, with a little  alteration, fitted him very well; and then I made him a jerkin of  goat's 

skin, as well as my skill would allow (for I was now grown a  tolerably good tailor); and I gave him a cap 

which I made of hare's  skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough; and thus he was  clothed, for the 

present, tolerably well, and was mighty well  pleased  to see himself almost as well clothed as his master.  It is 

true he  went awkwardly in these clothes at first: wearing the  drawers was very  awkward to him, and the 

sleeves of the waistcoat  galled his shoulders  and the inside of his arms; but a little  easing them where he 

complained they hurt him, and using himself to  them, he took to them  at length very well. 



The next day, after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to  consider where I should lodge him: and 

that I might do well for him  and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in  the  vacant place 

between my two fortifications, in the inside of  the last,  and in the outside of the first.  As there was a door or 

entrance  there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and  a door to  it, of boards, and set it up in 

the passage, a little  within the  entrance; and, causing the door to open in the inside, I  barred it up  in the night, 

taking in my ladders, too; so that  Friday could no way  come at me in the inside of my innermost wall, 

without making so much  noise in getting over that it must needs  awaken me; for my first wall  had now a 

complete roof over it of  long poles, covering all my tent,  and leaning up to the side of the  hill; which was 

again laid across  with smaller sticks, instead of  laths, and then thatched over a great  thickness with the rice- 



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straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at  the hole or place which  was left to go in or out by the ladder I had 

placed a kind of trap-  door, which, if it had been attempted on the  outside, would not  have opened at all, but 

would have fallen down and  made a great  noise - as to weapons, I took them all into my side every  night.  But 

I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a  more  faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday 

was to me: without  passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged;  his  very affections were 

tied to me, like those of a child to a  father;  and I daresay he would have sacrificed his life to save  mine upon 

any  occasion whatsoever - the many testimonies he gave me  of this put it  out of doubt, and soon convinced 

me that I needed to  use no  precautions for my safety on his account. 



This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder,  that however it had pleased God in His 

providence, and in the  government of the works of His hands, to take from so great a part  of  the world of His 

creatures the best uses to which their  faculties and  the powers of their souls are adapted, yet that He  has 

bestowed upon  them the same powers, the same reason, the same  affections, the same  sentiments of kindness 

and obligation, the  same passions and  resentments of wrongs, the same sense of  gratitude, sincerity,  fidelity, 

and all the capacities of doing  good and receiving good that  He has given to us; and that when He  pleases to 

offer them occasions  of exerting these, they are as  ready, nay, more ready, to apply them  to the right uses for 

which  they were bestowed than we are.  This made  me very melancholy  sometimes, in reflecting, as the 

several occasions  presented, how  mean a use we make of all these, even though we have  these powers 

enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the Spirit  of God,  and by the knowledge of His word added to 

our understanding;  and  why it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from so  many millions of 

souls, who, if I might judge by this poor savage,  would make a much better use of it than we did.  From hence 

I  sometimes was led too far, to invade the sovereignty of Providence,  and, as it were, arraign the justice of so 

arbitrary a disposition  of  things, that should hide that sight from some, and reveal it -  to  others, and yet 

expect a like duty from both; but I shut it up,  and  checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did 

not know  by what light and law these should be condemned; but that  as God was  necessarily, and by the 

nature of His being, infinitely  holy and just,  so it could not be, but if these creatures were all  sentenced to 

absence from Himself, it was on account of sinning  against that light  which, as the Scripture says, was a law 

to  themselves, and by such  rules as their consciences would  acknowledge to be just, though the  foundation 

was not discovered to  us; and secondly, that still as we  all are the clay in the hand of  the potter, no vessel 

could say to  him, "Why hast thou formed me  thus?" 



But to return to my new companion.  I was greatly delighted with  him, and made it my business to teach him 

everything that was  proper  to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to  make him  speak, and 

understand me when I spoke; and he was the  aptest scholar  that ever was; and particularly was so merry, so 

constantly diligent,  and so pleased when he could but understand  me, or make me understand  him, that it was 

very pleasant for me to  talk to him.  Now my life  began to be so easy that I began to say  to myself that could I 

but  have been safe from more savages, I  cared not if I was never to remove  from the place where I lived. 



                            CHAPTER XV - FRIDAY'S EDUCATION 



AFTER I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought  that, in order to bring Friday off from 

his horrid way of feeding,  and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him  taste  other flesh; so I 

took him out with me one morning to the       woods.  I  went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own  flock; 

and bring  it home and dress it; but as I was going I saw a  she-goat lying down  in the shade, and two young 

kids sitting by  her.  I catched hold of  Friday.  "Hold," said I, "stand still;" and  made signs to him not to  stir: 

immediately I presented my piece,  shot, and killed one of the  kids.  The poor creature, who had at a  distance, 

indeed, seen me kill  the savage, his enemy, but did not  know, nor could imagine how it was  done, was 

sensibly surprised,  trembled, and shook, and looked so  amazed that I thought he would  have sunk down.  He 

did not see the kid  I shot at, or perceive I  had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to  feel whether he was  not 

wounded; and, as I found presently, thought I  was resolved to  kill him: for he came and kneeled down to me, 



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and  embracing my  knees, said a great many things I did not understand; but  I could  easily see the meaning 

was to pray me not to kill him. 



I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; and  taking him up by the hand, laughed at 

him, and pointing to the kid  which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he  did: and while 

he was wondering, and looking to see how the  creature  was killed, I loaded my gun again.  By-and-by I saw 

a  great fowl, like  a hawk, sitting upon a tree within shot; so, to  let Friday understand  a little what I would do, 

I called him to me  again, pointed at the  fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I  thought it had been a hawk; 

I say, pointing to the parrot, and to  my gun, and to the ground under  the parrot, to let him see I would  make it 

fall, I made him understand  that I would shoot and kill  that bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade  him look, and 

immediately  he saw the parrot fall.  He stood like one  frightened again,  notwithstanding all I had said to him; 

and I found  he was the more     amazed, because he did not see me put anything into  the gun, but  thought that 

there must be some wonderful fund of death  and  destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or 

anything near or far off; and the astonishment this created in him  was such as could not wear off for a long 

time; and I believe, if I  would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun.  As for  the gun itself, 

he would not so much as touch it for several days  after; but he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had 

answered  him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards  learned of him,  was to desire it not to kill him. 

Well, after his  astonishment was a  little over at this, I pointed to him to run and  fetch the bird I had  shot, 

which he did, but stayed some time; for  the parrot, not being  quite dead, had fluttered away a good  distance 

from the place where  she fell: however, he found her, took  her up, and brought her to me;  and as I had 

perceived his ignorance  about the gun before, I took this  advantage to charge the gun  again, and not to let him 

see me do it,  that I might be ready for  any other mark that might present; but  nothing more offered at that 

time: so I brought home the kid, and the  same evening I took the  skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; 

and having a pot fit  for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the  flesh, and made  some very good broth. 

After I had begun to eat some I  gave some to  my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very  well; but 

that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with  it.  He  made a sign to me that the salt was not good 

to eat; and  putting a  little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and  would spit  and sputter at it, 

washing his mouth with fresh water after  it: on  the other hand, I took some meat into my mouth without salt, 

and I  pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as much as he  had  done at the salt; but it would not do; he 

would never care for  salt  with meat or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, and  then but a very little. 



Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to  feast him the next day by roasting a piece 

of the kid: this I did  by  hanging it before the fire on a string, as I had seen many  people do  in England, setting 

two poles up, one on each side of the  fire, and  one across the top, and tying the string to the cross  stick, 

letting  the meat turn continually.  This Friday admired very  much; but when he  came to taste the flesh, he 

took so many ways to  tell me how well he  liked it, that I could not but understand him:  and at last he told me, 

as well as he could, he would never eat  man's flesh any more, which I  was very glad to hear. 



The next day I set him to work beating some corn out, and sifting  it in the manner I used to do, as I observed 

before; and he soon  understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen  what the meaning of it 

was, and that it was to make bread of; for  after that I let him see me make my bread, and bake it too; and in  a 

little time Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as  I  could do it myself. 



I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead of  one, I must provide more ground for my 

harvest, and plant a larger  quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece  of  land, and began 

the fence in the same manner as before, in which  Friday worked not only very willingly and very hard, but 

did it  very  cheerfully: and I told him what it was for; that it was for  corn to  make more bread, because he was 

now with me, and that I  might have  enough for him and myself too.  He appeared very  sensible of that  part, 

and let me know that he thought I had much  more labour upon me  on his account than I had for myself; and 

that  he would work the  harder for me if I would tell him what to do. 



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This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place.  Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand 

the names of  almost  everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I  had to  send him to, and talked 

a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began  now to have some use for my tongue again, which,  indeed, I had 

very  little occasion for before.  Besides the  pleasure of talking to him, I  had a singular satisfaction in the 

fellow himself: his simple,  unfeigned honesty appeared to me more  and more every day, and I began  really to 

love the creature; and on  his side I believe he loved me  more than it was possible for him  ever to love 

anything before. 



I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own  country again; and having taught him English so 

well that he could  answer me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that  he  belonged to never 

conquered in battle?  At which he smiled, and  said -  "Yes, yes, we always fight the better;" that is, he meant 

always get  the better in fight; and so we began the following  discourse:- 



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



FRIDAY. - My nation beat much for all that. 



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



FRIDAY. - They more many than my nation, in the place where me was;  they take one, two, three, and me: 

my nation over-beat them in the  yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great 

thousand. 



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



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



MASTER. - Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men  they take?  Do they carry them away 

and eat them, as these did? 



FRIDAY. - Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up. 



MASTER. - Where do they carry them? 



FRIDAY. - Go to other place, where they think. 



MASTER. - Do they come hither? 



FRIDAY. - Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place. 



MASTER. - Have you been here with them? 



FRIDAY. - Yes, I have been here (points to the NW. side of the  island, which, it seems, was their side). 



By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the  savages who used to come on shore 

on the farther part of the  island,  on the same man-eating occasions he was now brought for;  and some time 

after, when I took the courage to carry him to that  side, being the  same I formerly mentioned, he presently 

knew the  place, and told me he  was there once, when they ate up twenty men,  two women, and one child;  he 

could not tell twenty in English, but  he numbered them by laying so  many stones in a row, and pointing to  me 

to tell them over. 



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I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows: that  after this discourse I had with him, I asked 

him how far it was  from  our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often  lost.  He told me there 

was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but  that after a  little way out to sea, there was a current and wind,  always 

one way in  the morning, the other in the afternoon.  This I  understood to be no  more than the sets of the tide, 

as going out or  coming in; but I  afterwards understood it was occasioned by the  great draft and reflux  of the 

mighty river Orinoco, in the mouth or  gulf of which river, as I  found afterwards, our island lay; and  that this 

land, which I  perceived to be W. and NW., was the great      island Trinidad, on the  north point of the mouth of 

the river.  I  asked Friday a thousand  questions about the country, the  inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and  what 

nations were near; he  told me all he knew with the greatest  openness imaginable.  I asked  him the names of 

the several nations of  his sort of people, but  could get no other name than Caribs; from  whence I easily 

understood that these were the Caribbees, which our  maps place on  the part of America which reaches from 

the mouth of the  river  Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha.  He told me that  up a  great way beyond 

the moon, that was beyond the setting of the  moon,  which must be west from their country, there dwelt white 

bearded  men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned  before; and that they had killed 

much mans, that was his word: by  all  which I understood he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in  America 

had been spread over the whole country, and were remembered  by all the  nations from father to son. 



I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island, and  get among those white men.  He told me, 

"Yes, yes, you may go in  two  canoe."  I could not understand what he meant, or make him  describe to  me 

what he meant by two canoe, till at last, with great  difficulty, I  found he meant it must be in a large boat, as 

big as  two canoes.  This  part of Friday's discourse I began to relish very  well; and from this  time I entertained 

some hopes that, one time or  other, I might find an  opportunity to make my escape from this  place, and that 

this poor  savage might be a means to help me. 



During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he  began to speak to me, and understand 

me, I was not wanting to lay a  foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked  him one 

time, who made him.  The creature did not understand me at  all, but thought I had asked who was his father - 

but I took it up  by  another handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we  walked  on, and the hills 

and woods.  He told me, "It was one  Benamuckee, that  lived beyond all;" he could describe nothing of  this 

great person, but  that he was very old, "much older," he said,  "than the sea or land,  than the moon or the 

stars."  I asked him  then, if this old person had  made all things, why did not all  things worship him?  He looked 

very  grave, and, with a perfect look  of innocence, said, "All things say O  to him."  I asked him if the  people 

who die in his country went away  anywhere?  He said, "Yes;  they all went to Benamuckee."  Then I asked  him 

whether those they  eat up went thither too.  He said, "Yes." 



From these things, I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the  true God; I told him that the great Maker 

of all things lived up  there, pointing up towards heaven; that He governed the world by  the  same power and 

providence by which He made it; that He was  omnipotent,  and could do everything for us, give everything to 

us,  take everything  from us; and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes.  He listened with  great attention, and 

received with pleasure the  notion of Jesus Christ  being sent to redeem us; and of the manner  of making our 

prayers to  God, and His being able to hear us, even  in heaven.  He told me one  day, that if our God could hear 

us, up  beyond the sun, he must needs  be a greater God than their  Benamuckee, who lived but a little way  off, 

and yet could not hear  till they went up to the great mountains  where he dwelt to speak to  them.  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 to me, their religious, or 

clergy; and  that they  went to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came  back and  told them what 

Benamuckee said.  By this I observed, that  there is  priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans 

in  the  world; and the policy of making a secret of religion, in order to  preserve the veneration of the people to 

the clergy, not only to be  found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among all religions in the world,  even among the 

most brutish and barbarous savages. 



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I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him  that the pretence of their old men going 

up to the mountains to say  O  to their god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from  thence what 

he said was much more so; that if they met with any  answer, or spake with any one there, it must be with an 

evil  spirit;  and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the  devil, the  origin of him, his rebellion 

against God, his enmity to  man, the  reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of  the world to  be 

worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the many  stratagems he  made use of to delude mankind to their 

ruin; how he  had a secret  access to our passions and to our affections, and to  adapt his snares  to our 

inclinations, so as to cause us even to be  our own tempters,  and run upon our destruction by our own choice. 



I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind  about the devil as it was about the being of a 

God.  Nature  assisted  all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of  a great  First Cause, an 

overruling, governing Power, a secret  directing  Providence, and of the equity and justice of paying        homage to 

Him that  made us, and the like; but there appeared  nothing of this kind in the  notion of an evil spirit, of his 

origin, his being, his nature, and  above all, of his inclination to  do evil, and to draw us in to do so  too; and the 

poor creature  puzzled me once in such a manner, by a  question merely natural and  innocent, that I scarce 

knew what to say  to him.  I had been  talking a great deal to him of the power of God,  His omnipotence,  His 

aversion to sin, His being a consuming fire to  the workers of  iniquity; how, as He had made us all, He could 

destroy  us and all  the world in a moment; and he listened with great  seriousness to me  all the while.  After this 

I had been telling him  how the devil was  God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his  malice and skill 

to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin  the kingdom  of Christ in the world, and the like.  "Well," 

says  Friday, "but  you say God is so strong, so great; is He not much  strong, much  might as the devil?"  "Yes, 

yes," says I, "Friday; God is  stronger  than the devil - God is above the devil, and therefore we  pray to  God to 

tread him down under our feet, and enable us to resist  his  temptations and quench his fiery darts."  "But," says 

he again,  "if  God much stronger, much might as the wicked devil, why God no kill  the devil, so make him no 

more do wicked?"  I was strangely  surprised  at this question; and, after all, though I was now an old  man, yet I 

was but a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist  or a solver of  difficulties; and at first I could not tell 

what to  say; so I  pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said;  but he was too  earnest for an answer 

to forget his question, so  that he repeated it  in the very same broken words as above.  By  this time I had 

recovered  myself a little, and I said, "God will at  last punish him severely; he  is reserved for the judgment, 

and is  to be cast into the bottomless  pit, to dwell with everlasting  fire."  This did not satisfy Friday;  but he 

returns upon me,  repeating my words, "'RESERVE AT LAST!' me no  understand - but why  not kill the devil 

now; not kill great ago?"  "You may as well ask  me," said I, "why God does not kill you or me,  when we do 

wicked  things here that offend Him - we are preserved to  repent and be  pardoned."  He mused some time on 

this.  "Well, well,"  says he,  mighty affectionately, "that well - so you, I, devil, all  wicked,  all preserve, repent, 

God pardon all."  Here I was run down  again  by him to the last degree; and it was a testimony to me, how the 

mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures  to the knowledge of a God, and of a 

worship or homage due to the  supreme being of God, as the consequence of our nature, yet nothing  but divine 

revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and  of  redemption purchased for us; of a Mediator of the 

new covenant,  and of  an Intercessor at the footstool of God's throne; I say,  nothing but a  revelation from 

Heaven can form these in the soul;  and that,  therefore, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus  Christ, I 

mean the  Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised for  the guide and  sanctifier of His people, are the 

absolutely  necessary instructors of  the souls of men in the saving knowledge  of God and the means of 

salvation. 



I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man,  rising up hastily, as upon some sudden 

occasion of going out; then  sending him for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God  that He 

would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage;  assisting, by His Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant 

creature  to  receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling  him  to Himself, and would guide 

me so to speak to him from the Word  of God  that his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and 

his soul  saved.  When he came again to me, I entered into a long  discourse with  him upon the subject of the 

redemption of man by the  Saviour of the  world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached  from Heaven, viz. 



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of  repentance towards God, and faith in our  blessed Lord Jesus.  I then  explained to him as well as I could 

why  our blessed Redeemer took not  on Him the nature of angels but the  seed of Abraham; and how, for that 

reason, the fallen angels had no  share in the redemption; that He came  only to the lost sheep of the  house of 

Israel, and the like. 



I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods  I took for this poor creature's instruction, 

and must acknowledge,  what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that  in laying things open 

to him, I really informed and instructed  myself  in many things that either I did not know or had not fully 

considered  before, but which occurred naturally to my mind upon  searching into  them, for the information of 

this poor savage; and I  had more  affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion  than ever I  felt 

before: so that, whether this poor wild wretch was  better for me  or no, I had great reason to be thankful that 

ever he  came to me; my  grief sat lighter, upon me; my habitation grew  comfortable to me  beyond measure: 

and when I reflected that in this  solitary life which  I have been confined to, I had not only been  moved to 

look up to  heaven myself, and to seek the Hand that had  brought me here, but was  now to be made an 

instrument, under  Providence, to save the life, and,  for aught I knew, the soul of a  poor savage, and bring him 

to the true  knowledge of religion and of  the Christian doctrine, that he might  know Christ Jesus, in whom is 

life eternal; I say, when I reflected  upon all these things, a  secret joy ran through every part of My soul,  and I 

frequently  rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which  I had so  often thought the most dreadful of all 

afflictions that could  possibly have befallen me. 



I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time;  and the conversation which employed the 

hours between Friday and me  was such as made the three years which we lived there together  perfectly and 

completely happy, if any such thing as complete  happiness can be formed in a sublunary state.  This savage 

was now  a  good Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to  hope,  and bless God for it, that we 

were equally penitent, and  comforted,  restored penitents.  We had here the Word of God to  read, and no 

farther off from His Spirit to instruct than if we had  been in  England.  I always applied myself, in reading the 

Scripture, to let  him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what  I read; and he  again, by his serious 

inquiries and questionings,  made me, as I said  before, a much better scholar in the Scripture  knowledge than I 

should  ever have been by my own mere private  reading.  Another thing I cannot  refrain from observing here 

also,  from experience in this retired part  of my life, viz. how infinite  and inexpressible a blessing it is that  the 

knowledge of God, and  of the doctrine of salvation by Christ  Jesus, is so plainly laid  down in the Word of 

God, so easy to be  received and understood,  that, as the bare reading the Scripture made  me capable of 

understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on         to the  great work of sincere repentance for my sins, 

and laying hold  of a  Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in  practice, and obedience to all 

God's commands, and this without any  teacher or instructor, I mean human; so the same plain instruction 

sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and  bringing him to be such a Christian as I have 

known few equal to  him  in my life. 



As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which  have happened in the world about religion, 

whether niceties in  doctrines or schemes 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 the world.  We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the  Word 

of  God; and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the  Spirit of  God teaching and instructing by His 

word, leading us into  all truth,  and making us both willing and obedient to the  instruction of His  word.  And I 

cannot see the least use that the  greatest knowledge of  the disputed points of religion, which have        made such 

confusion in the  world, would have been to us, if we  could have obtained it.  But I  must go on with the 

historical part  of things, and take every part in  its order. 



After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he  could understand almost all I said to him, 

and speak pretty  fluently,  though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my  own history,  or at least 

so much of it as related to my coming to  this place: how I  had lived there, and how long; I let him into the 

mystery, for such it  was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and  taught him how to shoot.  I  gave him a knife, 



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which he was  wonderfully delighted with; and I made  him a belt, with a frog  hanging to it, such as in 

England we wear  hangers in; and in the  frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a  hatchet, which was not only  as 

good a weapon in some cases, but much  more useful upon other  occasions. 



I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England,  which I came from; how we lived, how we 

worshipped God, how we  behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of  the world.  I gave 

him an account of the wreck which I had been on  board of, and showed him, as near as I could, the place 

where she  lay; but she was all beaten in pieces before, and gone.  I showed  him  the ruins of our boat, which 

we lost when we escaped, and which  I  could not stir with my whole strength then; but was now fallen  almost 

all to pieces.  Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood, musing  a great  while, and said nothing.  I asked him what it 

was he   studied upon.  At  last says he, "Me see such boat like come to  place at my nation."  I  did not understand 

him a good while; but at  last, when I had examined  further into it, I understood by him that  a boat, such as 

that had  been, came on shore upon the country where  he lived: that is, as he  explained it, was driven thither 

by stress  of weather.  I presently  imagined that some European ship must have  been cast away upon their 

coast, and the boat might get loose and  drive ashore; but was so dull  that I never once thought of men  making 

their escape from a wreck  thither, much less whence they  might come: so I only inquired after a  description 

of the boat. 



Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better  to understand him when he added with 

some warmth, "We save the  white  mans from drown."  Then I presently asked if there were any  white  mans, 

as he called them, in the boat.  "Yes," he said; "the  boat full  of white mans."  I asked him how many.  He told 

upon his  fingers  seventeen.    I asked him then what became of them.  He told  me, "They  live, they dwell at my 

nation." 



This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that  these might be the men belonging to the 

ship that was cast away in  the sight of my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship  was struck on the 

rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved  themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild 

shore  among  the savages.  Upon this I inquired of him more critically  what was  become of them.             He assured 

me they lived still there;  that they had  been there about four years; that the savages left  them alone, and  gave 

them victuals to live on.  I asked him how it  came to pass they  did not kill them and eat them.  He said, "No, 

they make brother with  them;" that is, as I understood him, a  truce; and then he added, "They  no eat mans but 

when make the war  fight;" that is to say, they never  eat any men but such as come to  fight with them and are 

taken in  battle. 



It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top  of the hill at the east side of the island, from 

whence, as I have  said, I had, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of  America, Friday, the weather 

being very serene, looks very  earnestly  towards the mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a  jumping and 

dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some  distance from him.  I  asked him what was the matter.  "Oh, 

joy!"  says he; "Oh, glad! there  see my country, there my nation!"  I  observed an extraordinary sense  of 

pleasure appeared in his face,  and his eyes sparkled, and his  countenance discovered a strange  eagerness, as if 

he had a mind to be  in his own country again.  This observation of mine put a great many  thoughts into me, 

which  made me at first not so easy about my new man  Friday as I was  before; and I made no doubt but that, if 

Friday could  get back to  his own nation again, he would not only forget all his  religion but  all his obligation 

to me, and would be forward enough to  give his  countrymen an account of me, and come back, perhaps with 

a  hundred  or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he might be  as  merry as he used to be with 

those of his enemies when they were  taken in war.  But I wronged the poor honest creature very much,  for 

which I was very sorry afterwards.  However, as my jealousy  increased,  and held some weeks, I was a little 

more circumspect,  and not so  familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was  certainly wrong  too; the 

honest, grateful creature having no  thought about it but what  consisted with the best principles, both  as a 

religious Christian and  as a grateful friend, as appeared  afterwards to my full satisfaction. 



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While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day  pumping him to see if he would discover 

any of the new thoughts  which  I suspected were in him; but I found everything he said was  so honest  and so 

innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my  suspicion;  and in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at 

last  entirely his own  again; nor did he in the least perceive that I was  uneasy, and  therefore I could not 

suspect him of deceit. 



One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at  sea, so that we could not see the continent, I 

called to him, and  said, "Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your  own  nation?"  "Yes," he 

said, "I be much O glad to be at my own  nation."  "What would you do there?" said I.  "Would you turn wild 

again, eat  men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?"  He looked full  of concern, and shaking his 

head, said, "No, no,  Friday tell them to  live good; tell them to pray God; tell them to  eat corn-bread, cattle 

flesh, milk; no eat man again."  "Why,  then," said I to him, "they  will kill you."  He looked grave at  that, and 

then said, "No, no, they  no kill me, they willing love  learn."  He meant by this, they would be  willing to learn. 

He  added, they learned much of the bearded mans  that came in the boat.  Then I asked him if he would go 

back to them.  He smiled at that,  and told me that he could not swim so far.  I told  him I would make  a canoe 

for him.  He told me he would go if I would  go with him.     "I go!" says I; "why, they will eat me if I come 

there."  "No, no,"  says he, "me make they no eat you; me make they much love  you."  He  meant, he would tell 

them how I had killed his enemies, and  saved  his life, and so he would make them love me.  Then he told me, 

as  well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or  bearded men, as he called them who 

came on shore there in distress. 



From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over, and see if  I could possibly join with those bearded 

men, who I made no doubt  were Spaniards and Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we  might  find some 

method to escape from thence, being upon the  continent, and  a good company together, better than I could 

from an  island forty  miles off the shore, alone and without help.  So,  after some days, I  took Friday to work 

again by way of discourse,  and told him I would  give him a boat to go back to his own nation;  and, 

accordingly, I  carried him to my frigate, which lay on the  other side of the island,  and having cleared it of 

water (for I  always kept it sunk in water), I  brought it out, showed it him, and  we both went into it.  I found he 

was a most dexterous fellow at  managing it, and would make it go  almost as swift again as I could.  So when 

he was in, I said to him,  "Well, now, Friday, shall we go  to your nation?"  He looked very dull  at my saying 

so; which it  seems was because he thought the boat was  too small to go so far.  I then told him I had a bigger; 

so the next  day I went to the place  where the first boat lay which I had made, but  which I could not  get into 

the water.  He said that was big enough;  but then, as I  had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three  and 

twenty  years there, the sun had so split and dried it, that it was  rotten.  Friday told me such a boat would do 

very well, and would carry  "much enough vittle, drink, bread;" this was his way of talking. 



         CHAPTER XVI - RESCUE OF PRISONERS  FROM CANNIBALS 



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

told him we would go and make  one as big as that, and he should go home in it.  He answered not  one  word, 

but looked very grave and sad.  I asked him what was the  matter  with him.  He asked me again, "Why you 

angry mad with  Friday? - what  me done?"  I asked him what he meant.  I told him I  was not angry with  him at 

all.  "No angry!" says he, repeating the  words several times;  "why send Friday home away to my nation?" 

"Why," says I, "Friday, did  not you say you wished you were there?"  "Yes, yes," says he, "wish we  both 

there; no wish Friday there, no  master there."  In a word, he  would not think of going there  without me.  "I go 

there, Friday?" says  I; "what shall I do there?"  He turned very quick upon me at this.  "You do great deal 

much  good," says he; "you teach wild mans be good,  sober, tame mans; you  tell them know God, pray God, 

and live new  life."  "Alas, Friday!"  says I, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; I  am but an ignorant  man 

myself."  "Yes, yes," says he, "you teachee me  good, you  teachee them good."  "No, no, Friday," says I, "you 

shall go  without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before."  He  looked confused again at that word; 



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and running to one of the  hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, and gives  it  to me.  "What 

must I do with this?" says I to him.  "You take  kill  Friday," says he.  "What must kill you for?" said I again.  He 

returns  very quick - "What you send Friday away for?  Take kill  Friday, no  send Friday away."  This he spoke 

so earnestly that I  saw tears stand  in his eyes.  In a word, I so plainly discovered  the utmost affection  in him to 

me, and a firm resolution in him,  that I told him then and  often after, that I would never send him  away from 

me if he was  willing to stay with me. 



Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection  to me, and that nothing could part him from 

me, so I found all the  foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his  ardent affection to the 

people, and his hopes of my doing them  good;  a thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the 

least  thought or intention, or desire of undertaking it.  But still  I found  a strong inclination to attempting my 

escape, founded on  the  supposition gathered from the discourse, that there were  seventeen  bearded men there; 

and therefore, without any more delay,  I went to  work with Friday to find out a great tree proper to fell,  and 

make a  large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage.  There were trees  enough in the island to have built 

a little fleet,  not of periaguas or  canoes, but even of good, large vessels; but  the main thing I looked  at was, to 

get one so near the water that  we might launch it when it     was made, to avoid the mistake I  committed at first. 

At last Friday  pitched upon a tree; for I  found he knew much better than I what kind  of wood was fittest for  it; 

nor can I tell to this day what wood to  call the tree we cut   down, except that it was very like the tree we  call 

fustic, or  between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much  of the same  colour and smell.  Friday wished 

to burn the hollow or  cavity of  this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how  to cut  it with tools; 

which, after I had showed him how to use, he did  very handily; and in about a month's hard labour we 

finished it and  made it very handsome; especially when, with our axes, which I  showed  him how to handle, 

we cut and hewed the outside into the  true shape of  a boat.  After this, however, it cost us near a  fortnight's 

time to  get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon  great rollers into the  water; but when she was in, she 

would have  carried twenty men with  great ease. 



When she was in the water, though she was so big, it amazed me to  see with what dexterity and how swift my 

man Friday could manage  her,  turn her, and paddle her along.  So I asked him if he would,  and if we  might 

venture over in her.  "Yes," he said, "we venture  over in her  very well, though great blow wind."  However I 

had a  further design  that he knew nothing of, and that was, to make a  mast and a sail, and  to fit her with an 

anchor and cable.  As to a  mast, that was easy  enough to get; so I pitched upon a straight  young cedar-tree, 

which I  found near the place, and which there  were great plenty of in the  island, and I set Friday to work to 

cut  it down, and gave him  directions how to shape and order it.  But as  to the sail, that was my  particular care. 

I knew I had old sails,  or rather pieces of old  sails, enough; but as I had had them now  six-and-twenty years 

by me,  and had not been very careful to  preserve them, not imagining that I  should ever have this kind of  use 

for them, I did not doubt but they  were all rotten; and,  indeed, most of them were so.  However, I found  two 

pieces which  appeared pretty good, and with these I went to work;  and with a  great deal of pains, and 

awkward stitching, you may be  sure, for  want of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly  thing, like 

what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go  with a  boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the 

top, such as  usually our ships' long-boats sail with, and such as I best knew  how  to manage, as it was such a 

one as I had to the boat in which I  made  my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of my  story. 



I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and  fitting my masts and sails; for I finished 

them very complete,  making  a small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist if  we should  turn to windward; 

and, what was more than all, I fixed a  rudder to the  stern of her to steer with.  I was but a bungling  shipwright, 

yet as I  knew the usefulness and even necessity of such  a thing, I applied  myself with so much pains to do it, 

that at last  I brought it to pass;  though, 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 what  belonged to the navigation of my boat; 

though he knew very well how  to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a  rudder; 



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and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and  again in the sea by the rudder, and how the 

sail jibed, and filled  this way or that way as the course we sailed changed; I say when he  saw this he stood 

like one astonished and amazed.  However, with a  little use, I made all these things familiar to him, and he 

became  an  expert sailor, except that of the compass I could make him  understand  very little.  On the other 

hand, as there was very  little cloudy  weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts,  there was the  less 

occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were  always to be seen  by night, and the shore by day, except in the 

rainy seasons, and then  nobody cared to stir abroad either by land  or sea. 



I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my captivity  in this place; though the three last years 

that I had this creature  with me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation  being quite of another 

kind than in all the rest of the time.  I  kept  the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness  to 

God  for His mercies as at first: and if I had such cause of  acknowledgment  at first, I had much more so now, 

having such  additional testimonies  of the care of Providence over me, and the  great hopes I had of being 

effectually and speedily delivered; for  I had an invincible impression  upon my thoughts that my deliverance 

was at hand, and that I should  not be another year in this place.  I went on, however, with my  husbandry; 

digging, planting, and  fencing as usual.  I gathered and  cured my grapes, and did every  necessary thing as 

before. 



The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I kept more  within doors than at other times.  We had 

stowed our new vessel as  secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I  said  in the beginning, 

I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling  her up  to the shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday 

dig a  little  dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to  give her  water enough to float in; and 

then, when the tide was out,  we made a  strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out;  and so she  lay, 

dry as to the tide from the sea: and to keep the  rain off we laid  a great many boughs of trees, so thick that she 

was as well thatched  as a house; and thus we waited for the months  of November and  December, in which I 

designed to make my adventure. 



When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my  design returned with the fair weather, I was 

preparing daily for  the  voyage.  And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain  quantity of  provisions, being 

the stores for our voyage; and  intended in a week or  a fortnight's time to open the dock, and  launch out our 

boat.  I was  busy one morning upon something of this  kind, when I called to Friday,  and bid him to go to the 

sea-shore  and see if he could find a turtle  or a tortoise, a thing which we  generally got once a week, for the 

sake of the eggs as well as the  flesh.  Friday had not been long gone  when he came running back,  and flew 

over my outer wall or fence, like  one that felt not the  ground or the steps he set his foot on; and  before I had 

time to  speak to him he cries out to me, "O master! O  master! O sorrow! O  bad!" - "What's the matter, 

Friday?" says I.  "O  yonder there,"  says he, "one, two, three canoes; one, two, three!"  By  this way of  speaking 

I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I  found there  were but three.  "Well, Friday," says I, "do not be 

frightened."  So I heartened him up as well as I could.  However, I saw  the poor  fellow was most terribly 

scared, for nothing ran in his head  but  that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces  and 

eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew  what to do with him.  I comforted him as well as 

I could, and told  him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as  well  as him.  "But," says I, 

"Friday, we must resolve to fight  them.  Can  you fight, Friday?"  "Me shoot," says he, "but there  come many 

great  number."  "No matter for that," said I again; "our  guns will fright  them that we do not kill."  So I asked 

him  whether, if I resolved to  defend him, he would defend me, and stand  by me, and do just as I bid  him.  He 

said, "Me die when you bid  die, master."  So I went and  fetched a good dram of rum and gave  him; for I had 

been so good a  husband of my rum that I had a great  deal left.  When we had drunk it,  I made him take the 

two fowling-  pieces, which we always carried, and  loaded them with large swan-  shot, as big as small 

pistol-bullets.  Then I took four muskets,  and loaded them with two slugs and five  small bullets each; and my 

two pistols I loaded with a brace of  bullets each.  I hung my great  sword, as usual, naked by my side, and  gave 

Friday his hatchet.  When 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  I found quickly by my glass that there were  one-and-twenty 



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savages,  three prisoners, and three canoes; and that  their whole business  seemed to be the triumphant banquet 

upon these  three human bodies:  a barbarous feast, indeed! but nothing more than,  as I had  observed, was 

usual with them.  I observed also that they had  landed, not where they had done when Friday made his escape, 

but  nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood  came almost close down to the sea. 

This, with the abhorrence of  the  inhuman errand these wretches came about, filled me with such  indignation 

that I came down again to Friday, and told him I was  resolved to go down to them and kill them all; and 

asked him if he  would stand by me.  He had now got over his fright, and his spirits  being a little raised with 

the dram I had given him, he was very  cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die. 



In this fit of fury I divided the arms which I had charged, as  before, between us; I gave Friday one pistol to 

stick in his  girdle,  and three guns upon his shoulder, and I took one pistol and  the other  three guns myself; 

and in this posture we marched out.  I  took a small  bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large  bag 

with more  powder and bullets; and as to orders, I charged him  to keep close  behind me, and not to stir, or 

shoot, or do anything  till I bid him,  and in the meantime not to speak a word.  In this  posture I fetched a 

compass to my right hand of near a mile, as  well to get over the creek  as to get into the wood, so that I could 

come within shot of them  before I should be discovered, which I had  seen by my glass it was  easy to do. 



While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I  began to abate my resolution: I do not mean 

that I entertained any  fear of their number, for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it  is  certain I was 

superior to them - nay, though I had been alone.  But it  occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, 

much less  what  necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack  people  who had neither done or 

intended me any wrong? who, as to  me, were  innocent, and whose barbarous customs were their own 

disaster, being  in them a token, indeed, of God's having left them,  with the other  nations of that part of the 

world, to such  stupidity, and to such  inhuman courses, but did not call me to take  upon me to be a judge of 

their actions, much less an executioner of  His justice - that whenever  He thought fit He would take the cause 

into His own hands, and by  national vengeance punish them as a  people for national crimes, but  that, in the 

meantime, it was none  of my business - that it was true  Friday might justify it, because  he was a declared 

enemy and in a  state of war with those very  particular people, and it was lawful for  him to attack them - but I 

could not say the same with regard to  myself.  These things were so  warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the 

way as I went, that I  resolved I would only go and place myself near  them that I might  observe their 

barbarous feast, and that I would act  then as God  should direct; but that unless something offered that was 

more a  call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them. 



With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all possible  wariness and silence, Friday following close at 

my heels, I marched  till I came to the skirts of the wood on the side which was next to  them, only that one 

corner of the wood lay between me and them.  Here  I called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree 

which  was just  at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and  bring me  word if he could see there 

plainly what they were doing.  He did so,  and came immediately back to me, and told me they might  be 

plainly  viewed there - that they were all about their fire,  eating the flesh  of one of their prisoners, and that 

another lay  bound upon the sand a  little from them, whom he said they would  kill next; and this fired  the very 

soul within me.  He told me it  was not one of their nation,  but one of the bearded men he had told      me of, that 

came to their  country in the boat.  I was filled with  horror at the very naming of  the white bearded man; and 

going to  the tree, I saw plainly by my  glass a white man, who lay upon the  beach of the sea with his hands 

and his feet tied with flags, or  things like rushes, and that he was  an European, and had clothes  on. 



There was another tree and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty  yards nearer to them than the place where I 

was, which, by going a  little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then  I  should be within 

half a shot of them; so I withheld my passion,  though  I was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going 

back  about  twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the  way till I  came to the other tree, and 

then came to a little rising  ground, which  gave me a full view of them at the distance of about  eighty yards. 



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I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful  wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled 

together, and had  just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring  him  perhaps limb by limb to 

their fire, and they were stooping down  to  untie the bands at his feet.  I turned to Friday.  "Now,  Friday," said 

I, "do as I bid thee."  Friday said he would.  "Then,  Friday," says I,  "do exactly as you see me do; fail in 

nothing."  So I set down one of  the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the  ground, and Friday did the  like 

by his, and with the other musket I  took my aim at the savages,  bidding him to do the like; then asking  him if 

he was ready, he said,  "Yes."  "Then fire at them," said I;  and at the same moment I fired  also. 



Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that he  shot he killed two of them, and wounded 

three more; and on my side  I  killed one, and wounded two.  They were, you may be sure, in a  dreadful 

consternation: and all of them that were not hurt jumped  upon their feet, but did not immediately know which 

way to run, or  which way to look, for they knew not from whence their destruction  came.  Friday kept his eyes 

close upon me, that, as I had bid him,  he  might observe what I did; so, as soon as the first shot was  made, I 

threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and  Friday did  the like; he saw me cock and present; 

he did the same  again.  "Are you  ready, Friday?" said I.  "Yes," says he.  "Let  fly, then," says I, "in  the name of 

God!" and with that I fired  again among the amazed  wretches, and so did Friday; and as our  pieces were now 

loaded with  what I call swan-shot, or small pistol-  bullets, we found only two  drop; but so many were 

wounded that they  ran about yelling and  screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and  most of them 

miserably  wounded; whereof three more fell quickly  after, though not quite dead. 



"Now, Friday," says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and  taking up the musket which was yet loaded, 

"follow me," which he  did  with a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the  wood and  showed 

myself, and Friday close at my foot.  As soon as I  perceived  they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and 

bade  Friday do so too,  and running as fast as I could, which, by the  way, was not very fast,  being loaded with 

arms as I was, I made  directly towards the poor  victim, who was, as I said, lying upon  the beach or shore, 

between the   place where they sat and the sea.  The two butchers who were just going  to work with him had 

left him  at the surprise of our first fire, and  fled in a terrible fright to  the seaside, and had jumped into a 

canoe,  and three more of the  rest made the same way.  I turned to Friday, and  bade him step  forwards and fire 

at them; he understood me immediately,  and  running about forty yards, to be nearer them, he shot at them; 

and  I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap  into the boat, though I saw two of them 

up again quickly; however,  he  killed two of them, and wounded the third, so that he lay down  in the  bottom 

of the boat as if he had been dead. 



While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut  the flags that bound the poor victim; and 

loosing his hands and  feet,  I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what  he was.  He answered 

in Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and  faint that he  could scarce stand or speak.  I took my bottle out of 

my pocket and  gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which  he did; and I  gave him a piece of bread, 

which he ate.  Then I  asked him what  countryman he was: and he said, Espagniole; and  being a little 

recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could  possibly make, how  much he was in my debt for his 

deliverance.  "Seignior," said I, with  as much Spanish as I could make up, "we  will talk afterwards, but we 

must fight now: if you have any  strength left, take this pistol and  sword, and lay about you."  He  took them 

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 like a fury, and had cut  two of them in pieces in an  instant; for the truth is, as the 

whole  was a surprise to them, so  the poor creatures were so much frightened  with the noise of our  pieces that 

they fell down for mere amazement  and fear, and had no  more power to attempt their own escape than their 

flesh had to  resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that  Friday  shot at in the boat; for as three of 

them fell with the hurt  they  received, so the other two fell with the fright. 



I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to  keep my charge ready, because I had given 

the Spaniard my pistol  and  sword: so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree  from  whence we first 

fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that  had  been discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and 



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then  giving  him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again,  and bade  them come to me when 

they wanted.  While I was loading  these pieces,  there happened a fierce engagement between the  Spaniard and 

one of the  savages, who made at him with one of their  great wooden swords, the  weapon that was to have 

killed him before,  if I had not prevented it.  The Spaniard, who was as bold and brave  as could be imagined, 

though  weak, had fought the Indian a good  while, and had cut two great wounds  on his head; but the savage 

being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in  with him, had thrown him  down, being faint, and was wringing my 

sword  out of his hand; when  the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting  the sword, drew the            pistol from 

his girdle, shot the savage through  the body, and  killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to  help 

him,  could come near him. 



Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches,  with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet: 

and with that he  despatched those three who as I said before, were wounded at first,  and fallen, and all the 

rest he could come up with: and the  Spaniard  coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-  pieces, 

with  which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them  both; but as he  was not able to run, they both 

got from him into  the wood, where  Friday pursued them, and killed one of them, but  the other was too  nimble 

for him; and though he was wounded, yet  had plunged himself  into the sea, and swam with all his might off 

to those two who were  left in the canoe; which three in the canoe,  with one wounded, that we  knew not 

whether he died or no, were all  that escaped our hands of       one-and-twenty.  The account of the whole  is as 

follows: Three killed  at our first shot from the tree; two  killed at the next shot; two  killed by Friday in the 

boat; two  killed by Friday of those at first  wounded; one killed by Friday in  the wood; three killed by the 

Spaniard; four killed, being found  dropped here and there, of the  wounds, or killed by Friday in his  chase of 

them; four escaped in the  boat, whereof one wounded, if  not dead - twenty-one in all. 



Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot,  and though Friday made two or three shots 

at them, I did not find  that he hit any of them.  Friday would fain have had me take one of  their canoes, and 

pursue them; and indeed I was very anxious about  their escape, lest, carrying the news home to their people, 

they  should come back perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes  and  devour us by mere multitude; so 

I consented to pursue them by  sea, and  running to one of their canoes, I jumped in and bade  Friday follow 

me:  but when I was in the canoe I was surprised to  find another poor  creature lie there, bound hand and foot, 

as the  Spaniard was, for the  slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not  knowing what was the matter;  for he 

had not been able to look up    over the side of the boat, he was  tied so hard neck and heels, and  had been tied 

so long that he had  really but little life in him. 



I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which they had bound  him with, and would have helped him up; 

but he could not stand or  speak, but groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that  he was only 

unbound in order to be killed.  When Friday came to him  I  bade him speak to him, and tell him of his 

deliverance; and  pulling  out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram, which,  with the  news of his 

being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in  the boat.  But when Friday came to hear him speak, and look in 

his  face, it  would have moved any one to tears to have seen how Friday  kissed him,  embraced him, hugged 

him, cried, laughed, hallooed,  jumped about,  danced, sang; then cried again, wrung his hands, beat  his own 

face and  head; and then sang and jumped about again like a  distracted creature.  It was a good while before I 

could make him  speak to me or tell me  what was the matter; but when he came a  little to himself he told me 

that it was his father. 



It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what  ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this 

poor savage at the  sight of his father, and of his being delivered from death; nor  indeed can I describe half the 

extravagances of his affection after  this: for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many  times: 

when he went in to him he would sit down by him, open his  breast, and hold his father's head close to his 

bosom for many  minutes together, to nourish it; then he took his arms and ankles,  which were numbed and 

stiff with the binding, and chafed and rubbed  them with his hands; and I, perceiving what the case was, gave 

him  some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a great  deal of good. 



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This affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other  savages, who were now almost out of sight; 

and it was happy for us  that we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and  before they could be 

got a quarter of their way, and continued  blowing so hard all night, and that from the north-west, which was 

against them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or  that  they ever reached their own coast. 



But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father that I  could not find in my heart to take him off for 

some time; but after  I  thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he  came  jumping and 

laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme: then  I asked  him if he had given his father any bread.  He shook 

his  head, and  said, "None; ugly dog eat all up self."  I then gave him  a cake of  bread out of a little pouch I 

carried on purpose; I also  gave him a  dram for himself; but he would not taste it, but carried  it to his  father.  I 

had in my pocket two or three bunches of  raisins, so I gave  him a handful of them for his father.  He had no 

sooner given his  father these raisins but I saw him come out of the  boat, and run away  as if he had been 

bewitched, for he was the  swiftest fellow on his  feet that ever I saw: I say, he ran at such  a rate that he was 

out of  sight, as it were, in an instant; and  though I called, and hallooed  out too after him, it was all one - 

away he went; and in a quarter of  an hour I saw him come back  again, though not so fast as he went; and  as 

he came nearer I found  his pace slacker, because he had something  in his hand.  When he  came up to me I 

found he had been quite home for  an earthen jug or  pot, to bring his father some fresh water, and that  he had 

got two  more cakes or loaves of bread: the bread he gave me,  but the water  he carried to his father; however, 

as I was very thirsty  too, I  took a little of it.  The water revived his father more than  all  the rum or spirits I had 

given him, for he was fainting with  thirst. 



When his father had drunk, I called to him to know if there was any  water left.  He said, "Yes"; and I bade 

him give it to the poor  Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent  one  of the cakes that 

Friday brought to the Spaniard too, who was  indeed  very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place 

under  the shade  of a tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very  much swelled  with the rude bandage 

he had been tied with.  When I  saw that upon  Friday's coming to him with the water he sat up and  drank, and 

took  the bread and began to eat, I went to him and gave  him a handful of  raisins.  He looked up in my face 

with all the  tokens of gratitude and  thankfulness that could appear in any  countenance; but was so weak, 

notwithstanding he had so exerted  himself in the fight, that he could  not stand up upon his feet - he  tried to 

do it two or three times, but  was really not able, his  ankles were so swelled and so painful to him;  so I bade 

him sit  still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles, and  bathe them with  rum, as he had done his father's. 



I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or  perhaps less, all the while he was here, turn 

his head about to see  if his father was in the same place and posture as he left him  sitting; and at last he found 

he was not to be seen; at which he  started up, and, without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness  to  him 

that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground     as he  went; but when he came, he only found he 

had laid himself  down to ease  his limbs, so Friday came back to me presently; and  then I spoke to  the 

Spaniard to let Friday help him up if he could,  and lead him to  the boat, and then he should carry him to our 

dwelling, where I would  take care of him.  But Friday, a lusty,  strong fellow, took the  Spaniard upon his back, 

and carried him  away to the boat, and set him  down softly upon the side or gunnel  of the canoe, with his feet 

in the  inside of it; and then lifting  him quite in, he set him close to his  father; and presently  stepping out 

again, launched the boat off, and  paddled it along the  shore faster than I could walk, though the wind  blew 

pretty hard  too; so he brought them both safe into our creek, and  leaving them  in the boat, ran away to fetch 

the other canoe.  As he  passed me I  spoke to him, and asked him whither he went.  He told me,  "Go fetch  more 

boat;" so away he went like the wind, for sure never  man or  horse ran like him; and he had the other canoe in 

the creek  almost  as soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and then  went  to help our new guests out 

of the boat, which he did; but they  were  neither of them able to walk; so that poor Friday knew not what  to 

do. 



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

he came to me, I soon made a  kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them  both up 



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together upon it between us. 



But when we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification,  we were at a worse loss than before, for it 

was impossible to get  them over, and I was resolved not to break it down; so I set to  work  again, and Friday 

and I, in about two hours' time, made a very  handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with 

boughs   of  trees, being in the space without our outward fence and between  that  and the grove of young wood 

which I had planted; and here we  made them  two beds of such things as I had - viz. of good rice-  straw, with 

blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover  them, on each  bed. 



My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in  subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I 

frequently made,  how  like a king I looked.  First of all, the whole country was my  own  property, so that I had 

an undoubted right of dominion.  Secondly, my  people were perfectly subjected - I was absolutely          lord and 

lawgiver -  they all owed their lives to me, and were ready  to lay down their  lives, if there had been occasion 

for it, for me.  It was remarkable,  too, I had but three subjects, and they were of  three different  religions - my 

man Friday was a Protestant, his  father was a Pagan and  a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist.  However, 

I allowed liberty  of conscience throughout my dominions.  But this is by the way. 



As soon as I had secured my two weak, rescued prisoners, and given  them shelter, and a place to rest them 

upon, I began to think of  making some provision for them; and the first thing I did, I  ordered  Friday to take a 

yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat,  out of my  particular flock, to be killed; when I cut off the 

hinder-quarter, and  chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to  work to boiling and  stewing, and made them 

a very good dish, I  assure you, of flesh and  broth; and as I cooked it without doors,  for I made no fire within 

my  inner wall, so I carried it all into  the new tent, and having set a  table there for them, I sat down,  and ate 

my own dinner also with  them, and, as well as I could,  cheered them and encouraged them.  Friday was my 

interpreter,  especially to his father, and, indeed, to  the Spaniard too; for the  Spaniard spoke the language of 

the savages  pretty well. 



After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take one  of the canoes, and go and fetch our 

muskets and other firearms,  which, for want of time, we had left upon the place of battle; and  the next day I 

ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the  savages, which lay open to the sun, and would presently be 

offensive.  I also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their  barbarous  feast, which I could not think of 

doing myself; nay, I  could not bear  to see them if I went that way; all which he  punctually performed, and 

effaced the very appearance of the  savages being there; so that when I  went again, I could scarce know  where 

it was, otherwise than by the  corner of the wood pointing to  the place. 



I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new  subjects; and, first, I set Friday to inquire of 

his father what he  thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we  might expect a return of 

them, with a power too great for us to  resist.  His first opinion was, that the savages in the boat never  could 

live out the storm which blew that night they went off, but  must of necessity be drowned, or driven south to 

those other  shores,  where they were as sure to be devoured as they were to be  drowned if  they were cast 

away; but, as to what they would do if  they came safe  on shore, he said he knew not; but it was his      opinion 

that they were  so dreadfully frightened with the manner of  their being attacked, the  noise, and the fire, that he 

believed  they would tell the people they  were all killed by thunder and  lightning, not by the hand of man; and 

that the two which appeared    - viz. Friday and I - were two heavenly  spirits, or furies, come  down to destroy 

them, and not men with  weapons.  This, he said, he  knew; because he heard them all cry out  so, in their 

language, one  to another; for it was impossible for them  to conceive that a man  could dart fire, and speak 

thunder, and kill at  a distance, without  lifting up the hand, as was done now: and this old  savage was in  the 

right; for, as I understood since, by other hands,  the savages  never attempted to go over to the island 

afterwards, they  were so  terrified with the accounts given by those four men (for it  seems  they did escape the 

sea), that they believed whoever went to  that  enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods. 

This,  however, I knew not; and therefore was under continual  apprehensions for a good while, and kept 



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always upon my guard, with  all my army: for, as there were now four of us, I would have  ventured  upon a 

hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any  time. 



                           CHAPTER XVII - VISIT OF MUTINEERS 



IN a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of  their coming wore off; and I began to take 

my former thoughts of a  voyage to the main into consideration; being likewise assured by  Friday's father that 

I might depend upon good usage from their  nation, on his account, if I would go.  But my thoughts were a 

little  suspended when I had a serious discourse with the Spaniard,  and when I  understood that there were 

sixteen more of his  countrymen and  Portuguese, who having been cast away and made their  escape to that 

side, lived there at peace, indeed, with the  savages, but were very  sore put to it for necessaries, and, indeed, 

for life.  I asked him  all the particulars of their voyage, and  found they were a Spanish  ship, bound from the 

Rio de la Plata to  the Havanna, being directed to  leave their loading there, which was  chiefly hides and silver, 

and to  bring back what European goods  they could meet with there; that they  had five Portuguese seamen on 

board, whom they took out of another  wreck; that five of their own  men were drowned when first the ship 

was  lost, and that these  escaped through infinite dangers and hazards, and  arrived, almost  starved, on the 

cannibal coast, where they expected to  have been  devoured every moment.  He told me they had some arms 

with  them,  but they were perfectly useless, for that they had neither  powder  nor ball, the washing of the sea 

having spoiled all their  powder  but a little, which they used at their first landing to provide  themselves with 

some food. 



I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if they  had formed any design of making their 

escape.  He said they had  many  consultations about it; but that having neither vessel nor  tools to  build one, 

nor provisions of any kind, their councils  always ended in  tears and despair.  I asked him how he thought they 

would receive a  proposal from me, which might tend towards an  escape; and whether, if  they were all here, it 

might not be done.  I told him with freedom, I  feared mostly their treachery and ill-  usage of me, if I put my 

life  in their hands; for that gratitude  was no inherent virtue in the  nature of man, nor did men always  square 

their dealings by the  obligations they had received so much  as they did by the advantages  they expected.  I 

told him it would  be very hard that I should be made  the instrument of their  deliverance, and that they should 

afterwards  make me their prisoner  in New Spain, where an Englishman was certain  to be made a  sacrifice, 

what necessity or what accident soever brought  him  thither; and that I had rather be delivered up to the 

savages, and  be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the  priests,  and be carried into the 

Inquisition.  I added that,  otherwise, I was  persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with  so many hands, 

build  a barque large enough to carry us all away,  either to the Brazils  southward, or to the islands or Spanish 

coast  northward; but that if,  in requital, they should, when I had put  weapons into their hands,  carry me by 

force among their own people,  I might be ill-used for my  kindness to them, and make my case worse  than it 

was before. 



He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuousness, that  their condition was so miserable, and that 

they were so sensible of  it, that he believed they would abhor the thought of using any man  unkindly that 

should contribute to their deliverance; and that, if  I  pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and 

discourse with  them  about it, and return again and bring me their answer; that he  would  make conditions with 

them upon their solemn oath, that they  should be  absolutely under my direction as their commander and 

captain; and they  should swear upon the holy sacraments and gospel  to be true to me, and  go to such 

Christian country as I should  agree to, and no other; and  to be directed wholly and absolutely by  my orders 

till they were  landed safely in such country as I  intended, and that he would bring a  contract from them, under 

their  hands, for that purpose.  Then he told  me he would first swear to  me himself that he would never stir 

from me  as long as he lived  till I gave him orders; and that he would take my  side to the last  drop of his 

blood, if there should happen the least  breach of faith  among his countrymen.  He told me they were all of 

them very civil,  honest men, and they were under the greatest distress  imaginable,  having neither weapons 



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nor clothes, nor any food, but at  the mercy  and discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever  returning  to 

their own country; and that he was sure, if I would  undertake  their relief, they would live and die by me. 



Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, if  possible, and to send the old savage and this 

Spaniard over to them  to treat.  But when we had got all things in readiness to go, the  Spaniard himself started 

an objection, which had so much prudence  in  it on one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I 

could  not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put  off the  deliverance of his comrades for at 

least half a year.  The  case was  thus: he had been with us now about a month, during which  time I had  let him 

see in what manner I had provided, with the  assistance of  Providence, for my support; and he saw evidently 

what  stock of corn  and rice I had laid up; which, though it was more  than sufficient for  myself, yet it was not 

sufficient, without good  husbandry, for my  family, now it was increased to four; but much  less would it be 

sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he  said, sixteen, still  alive, should come over; and least of all 

would it be sufficient to  victual our vessel, if we should build  one, for a voyage to any of the  Christian 

colonies of America; so  he told me he thought it would be  more advisable to let him and the  other two dig 

and cultivate some  more land, as much as I could  spare seed to sow, and that we should  wait another harvest, 

that we  might have a supply of corn for his  countrymen, when they should  come; for want might be a 

temptation to  them to disagree, or not to  think themselves delivered, otherwise than  out of one difficulty  into 

another.  "You know," says he, "the  children of Israel, though  they rejoiced at first for their being  delivered 

out of Egypt, yet  rebelled even against God Himself, that  delivered them, when they  came to want bread in 

the wilderness." 



His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could  not but be very well pleased with his 

proposal, as well as I was  satisfied with his fidelity; so we fell to digging, all four of us,  as well as the 

wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and  in  about a month's time, by the end of which it was 

seed-time, we  had got  as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed two-and-  twenty bushels  of barley 

on, and sixteen jars of rice, which was,  in short, all the  seed we had to spare: indeed, we left ourselves  barely 

sufficient, for our own food for the six months that we had  to expect our crop; that  is to say reckoning from 

the time we set  our seed aside for sowing;  for it is not to be supposed it is six  months in the ground in that 

country. 



Having now society enough, and our numbers being sufficient to put  us out of fear of the savages, if they had 

come, unless their  number  had been very great, we went freely all over the island,  whenever we  found 

occasion; and as we had our escape or deliverance  upon our  thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to 

have the  means of it  out of mine.  For this purpose I marked out several  trees, which I  thought fit for our work, 

and I set Friday and his  father to cut them  down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I  imparted my 

thoughts  on that affair, to oversee and direct their  work.  I showed them with  what indefatigable pains I had 

hewed a  large tree into single planks,  and I caused them to do the like,  till they made about a dozen large 

planks, of good oak, near two  feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and  from two inches to four  inches thick: what 

prodigious labour it took  up any one may  imagine. 



At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame  goats as much as I could; and for this purpose 

I made Friday and  the  Spaniard go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day  (for we  took our turns), 

and by this means we got about twenty  young kids to  breed up with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, 

we saved the  kids, and added them to our flock.  But above all, the  season for  curing the grapes coming on, I 

caused such a prodigious  quantity to be  hung up in the sun, that, I believe, had we been at  Alicant, where the 

raisins of the sun are cured, we could have  filled sixty or eighty  barrels; and these, with our bread, formed a 

great part of our food -  very good living too, I assure you, for  they are exceedingly  nourishing. 



It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the most  plentiful increase I had seen in the island, 

but, however, it was  enough to answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we  brought in and 

thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels;  and  the like in proportion of the rice; which was store 



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enough for  our  food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had  been on  shore with me; or, if we 

had been ready for a voyage, it  would very  plentifully have victualled our ship to have carried us  to any part 

of  the world; that is to say, any part of America.  When we had thus  housed and secured our magazine of corn, 

we fell  to work to make more  wicker-ware, viz. great baskets, in which we  kept it; and the Spaniard  was very 

handy and dexterous at this  part, and often blamed me that I  did not make some things for  defence of this 

kind of work; but I saw  no need of it. 



And now, having a full supply of food for all the guests I   expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the 

main, to see  what he could do with those he had left behind him there.  I gave  him  a strict charge not to bring 

any man who would not first swear  in the  presence of himself and the old savage that he would in no  way 

injure,  fight with, or attack the person he should find in the  island, who was  so kind as to send for them in 

order to their  deliverance; but that  they would stand by him and defend him  against all such attempts, and 

wherever they went would be entirely  under and subjected to his  command; and that this should be put in 

writing, and signed in their  hands.  How they were to have done  this, when I knew they had neither  pen nor 

ink, was a question  which we never asked.  Under these  instructions, the Spaniard and  the old savage, the 

father of Friday,  went away in one of the  canoes which they might be said to have come  in, or rather were 

brought in, when they came as prisoners to be  devoured by the  savages.  I gave each of them a musket, with a 

firelock on it, and  about eight charges of powder and ball, charging  them to be very  good husbands of both, 

and not to use either of them  but upon  urgent occasions. 



This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me in  view of my deliverance for now 

twenty-seven years and some days.  I  gave them provisions of bread and of dried grapes, sufficient for 

themselves for many days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards -  for  about eight days' time; and wishing them 

a good voyage, I saw  them go,  agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at  their  return, by 

which I should know them again when they came  back, at a  distance, before they came on shore.  They went 

away  with a fair gale  on the day that the moon was at full, by my  account in the month of  October; but as for 

an exact reckoning of  days, after I had once lost  it I could never recover it again; nor  had I kept even the 

number of  years so punctually as to be sure I  was right; though, as it proved  when I afterwards examined my 

account, I found I had kept a true  reckoning of years. 



It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a  strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of 

which the like has  not, perhaps, been heard of in history.  I was fast asleep in my  hutch one morning, when my 

man Friday came running in to me, and  called aloud, "Master, master, they are come, they are come!"  I 

jumped up, and regardless of danger I went, as soon as I could get  my  clothes on, through my little grove, 

which, by the way, was by  this  time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of  danger I went  without 

my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I  was surprised  when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently 

saw a  boat at about a  league and a half distance, standing in for the  shore, with a  shoulder-of-mutton sail, as 

they call it, and the  wind blowing pretty  fair to bring them in: also I observed,  presently, that they did not 

come from that side which the shore  lay on, but from the southernmost  end of the island.  Upon this I  called 

Friday in, and bade him lie  close, for these were not the  people we looked for, and that we might  not know 

yet whether they  were friends or enemies.  In the next place  I went in to fetch my  perspective glass to see 

what I could make of  them; and having  taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the  hill, as I  used to do 

when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take  my view  the plainer without being discovered.  I had scarce 

set my   foot  upon the hill when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at  anchor, at about two leagues and a 

half distance from me, SSE., but  not above a league and a half from the shore.  By my observation it  appeared 

plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be   an English long-boat. 



I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of seeing a  ship, and one that I had reason to believe 

was manned by my own  countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot  describe;  but yet I had 

some secret doubts hung about me - I cannot  tell from  whence they came - bidding me keep upon my guard. 

In the  first place,  it occurred to me to consider what business an English  ship could have  in that part of the 



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world, since it was not the way  to or from any  part of the world where the English had any traffic;  and I knew 

there  had been no storms to drive them in there in  distress; and that if  they were really English it was most 

probable  that they were here upon  no good design; and that I had better  continue as I was than fall into  the 

hands of thieves and  murderers. 



Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger which  sometimes are given him when he may think 

there is no possibility  of  its being real.  That such hints and notices are given us I  believe  few that have made 

any observation of things can deny; that  they are  certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse  of 

spirits,  we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to  be to warn us of  danger, why should we not 

suppose they are from  some friendly agent  (whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate,  is not the 

question),  and that they are given for our good? 



The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this  reasoning; for had I not been made 

cautious by this secret  admonition, come it from whence it will, I had been done  inevitably,  and in a far worse 

condition than before, as you will  see presently.  I had not kept myself long in this posture till I  saw the boat 

draw  near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to  thrust in at, for the  convenience of landing; however, as 

they did  not come quite far  enough, they did not see the little inlet where  I formerly landed my  rafts, but ran 

their boat on shore upon the   beach, at about half a  mile from me, which was very happy for me;  for otherwise 

they would  have landed just at my door, as I may say,  and would soon have beaten  me out of my castle, and 

perhaps have  plundered me of all I had.  When  they were on shore I was fully  satisfied they were Englishmen, 

at  least most of them; one or two I  thought were Dutch, but it did not  prove so; there were in all  eleven men, 

whereof three of them I found  were 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 I could 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 appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a 

degree as  the  first.  I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what  the meaning of it should be. 

Friday called out to me in English,  as  well as he could, "O master! you see English mans eat prisoner  as well 

as savage mans."  "Why, Friday," says I, "do you think they  are going  to eat them, then?"  "Yes," says Friday, 

"they will eat  them."  "No  no," says I, "Friday; I am afraid they will murder  them, indeed; but  you may be sure 

they will not eat them." 



All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but  stood trembling with the horror of the sight, 

expecting every  moment  when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw  one of the  villains lift up 

his arm with a great cutlass, as the  seamen call it,  or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I  expected to 

see him  fall every moment; at which all the blood in my  body seemed to run  chill in my veins.  I wished 

heartily now for  the Spaniard, and the  savage that had gone with him, or that I had  any way to have come 

undiscovered within shot of them, that I might  have secured the three  men, for I saw no firearms 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 the insolent seamen, I  observed the fellows run  scattering about the island, as if they  wanted to see 

the country.  I  observed that the three other men had  liberty to go also where they  pleased; but they sat down 

all three  upon the ground, very pensive,  and looked like men in despair.  This put me in mind of the first time 

when I came on shore, and  began to look about me; how I gave myself  over for lost; how wildly  I looked 

round me; what dreadful  apprehensions I had; and how I      lodged in the tree all night for fear  of being 

devoured by wild  beasts.  As I knew nothing that night of the  supply I was to  receive by the providential 

driving of the ship nearer  the land by  the storms and tide, by which I have since been so long  nourished  and 

supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing  how  certain of deliverance and supply they were, 

how near it was to  them, and how effectually and really they were in a condition of  safety, at the same time 

that they thought themselves lost and  their  case desperate.  So little do we see before us in the world,  and so 

much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great  Maker of the  world, that He does not leave His 

creatures so  absolutely destitute,  but that in the worst circumstances they have  always something to be 

thankful for, and sometimes are nearer  deliverance than they imagine;  nay, are even brought to their 



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deliverance by the means by which they  seem to be brought to their  destruction. 



It was just at high-water when these people came on shore; and  while they rambled about to see what kind of 

a place they were in,  they had carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water  was  ebbed considerably 

away, leaving their boat aground.  They had  left  two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having 

drunk  a little  too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking  a little  sooner than the other and 

finding the boat too fast  aground for him to  stir it, hallooed out for the rest, who were  straggling about: upon 

which they all soon came to the boat: but it  was past all their  strength to launch her, the boat being very 

heavy, and the shore on  that side being a soft oozy sand, almost  like a quicksand.  In this  condition, like true 

seamen, who are,  perhaps, the least of all  mankind given to forethought, they gave  it over, and away they 

strolled about the country again; and I  heard one of them say aloud to  another, calling them off from the  boat, 

"Why, let her alone, Jack,  can't you? she'll float next  tide;" by which I was fully confirmed in  the main 

inquiry of what  countrymen they were.  All this while I kept  myself very close, not  once daring to stir out of 

my castle any  farther than to my place  of observation near the top of the hill: and  very glad I was to  think 

how well it was fortified.  I knew it was no  less than ten  hours before the boat could float again, and by that 

time it would  be dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their  motions, and  to hear their discourse, if they 

had any.  In the  meantime I fitted  myself up for a battle as before, though with more  caution, knowing  I had to 

do with another kind of enemy than I had at  first.  I  ordered Friday also, whom I had made an excellent 

marksman  with his  gun, to load himself with arms.  I took myself two  fowling-pieces,  and I gave him three 

muskets.  My figure, indeed, was  very fierce;  I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap  I 

have  mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt,  and a  gun upon each shoulder. 



It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt  till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being 

the heat of the day,  I  found that they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as  I  thought, laid down to 

sleep.  The three poor distressed men, too   anxious for their condition to get any sleep, had, however, sat  down 

under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a  mile from  me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any of 

the rest.  Upon this I  resolved to discover myself to them, and learn  something of their  condition; immediately 

I marched as above, my  man Friday at a good  distance behind me, as formidable for his arms  as I, but not 

making  quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I  did.  I came as near them  undiscovered as I could, and then, 

before  any of them saw me, I called  aloud to them in Spanish, "What are  ye, gentlemen?"  They started up  at 

the noise, but were ten times   more confounded when they saw me, and  the uncouth figure that I  made.  They 

made no answer at all, but I  thought I perceived them  just going to fly from me, when I spoke to  them in 

English.  "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me;  perhaps you may  have a friend near when you did 

not expect it."  "He  must be sent  directly from heaven then," said one of them very gravely  to me,  and pulling 

off his hat at the same time to me; "for our  condition  is past the help of man."  "All help is from heaven, sir," 

said I,  "but can you put a stranger in the way to help you? for you  seem to  be in some great distress.  I saw 

you when you landed; and  when you  seemed to make application to the brutes that came with you,  I saw  one 

of them lift up his sword to kill you." 



The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling,  looking like one astonished, returned, "Am I 

talking to God or man?  Is it a real man or an angel?"  "Be in no fear about that, sir,"  said  I; "if God had sent an 

angel to relieve you, he would have  come better  clothed, and armed after another manner than you see  me; 

pray lay  aside your fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and  disposed to assist  you; you see I have one servant 

only; we have  arms and ammunition;  tell us freely, can we serve you?  What is  your case?"  "Our case,  sir," 

said he, "is too long to tell you  while our murderers are so  near us; but, in short, sir, I was  commander of that 

ship - my men  have mutinied against me; they have  been hardly prevailed on not to  murder me, and, at last, 

have set  me on shore in this desolate place,  with these two men with me -  one my mate, the other a passenger 

-  where we expected to perish,  believing the place to be uninhabited,  and know not yet what to  think of it." 

"Where are these brutes, your  enemies?" said I; "do  you know where they are gone?  There they lie,  sir," said 

he,  pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for  fear they  have seen us and heard you speak; if they 

have, they will  certainly  murder us all."  "Have they any firearms?" said I.  He  answered,  "They had only two 



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pieces, one of which they left in the  boat."  "Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are all  asleep; 

it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather  take them prisoners?"  He told me there were two 

desperate villains  among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if  they  were secured, he 

believed all the rest would return to their  duty.  I  asked him which they were.  He told me he could not at  that 

distance  distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in  anything I would  direct.  "Well," says I, "let us 

retreat out of  their view or hearing,  lest they awake, and we will resolve  further."  So they willingly went  back 

with me, till the woods  covered us from them. 



"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, are  you willing to make two conditions with me?" 

He anticipated my  proposals by telling me that both he and the ship, if recovered,  should be wholly directed 

and commanded by me in everything; and if  the ship was not recovered, he would live and die with me in 

what  part of the world soever I would send him; and the two other men  said  the same.  "Well," says I, "my 

conditions are but two; first,  that  while you stay in this island with me, you will not pretend to  any  authority 

here; and if I put arms in your hands, you will, upon  all  occasions, give them up to me, and do no prejudice to 

me or  mine upon  this island, and in the meantime be governed by my  orders; secondly,  that if the ship is or 

may be recovered, you will  carry me and my man  to England passage free." 



He gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of man  could devise that he would comply with 

these most reasonable  demands,  and besides would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it  upon all  occasions 

as long as he lived.  "Well, then," said I,  "here are three  muskets for you, with powder and ball; tell me next 

what you think is  proper to be done."  He showed all the  testimonies of his gratitude  that he was able, but 

offered to be  wholly guided by me.  I told him I  thought it was very hard  venturing anything; but the best 

method I  could think of was to  fire on them at once as they lay, and if any  were not killed at the  first volley, 

and offered to submit, we might  save them, and so put  it wholly upon God's providence to direct the  shot.  He 

said, very  modestly, that he was loath to kill them if he  could help it; but  that those two were incorrigible 

villains, and had  been the authors  of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped,  we should be  undone still, 

for they would go on board and bring the  whole ship's  company, and destroy us all.  "Well, then," says I, 

"necessity  legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our  lives."  However, seeing him still cautious 

of shedding blood, I told  him  they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. 



In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and  soon after we saw two of them on their 

feet.  I asked him if either  of them were the heads of the mutiny?  He said, "No."  "Well,  then,"  said I, "you 

may let them escape; and Providence seems to  have  awakened them on purpose to save themselves.  Now," 

says I,  "if the  rest escape you, it is your fault."  Animated with this, he  took the  musket I had given him in his 

hand, and a pistol in his  belt, and his  two comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand;  the two men who 

were with him going first made some noise, at which  one of the seamen  who was awake turned about, and 

seeing them  coming, cried out to the  rest; but was too late then, for the  moment he cried out they fired -  I 

mean the two men, the captain  wisely reserving his own piece.  They  had so well aimed their shot  at the men 

they knew, that one of them  was killed on the spot, and  the other very much wounded; but not being  dead, he 

started up on  his feet, and called eagerly for help to the  other; but the captain  stepping to him, told him it was 

too late to  cry for help, he  should call upon God to forgive his villainy, and  with that word  knocked him 

down with the stock of his musket, so that  he never  spoke more; there were three more in the company, and 

one of  them  was slightly wounded.  By this time I was come; and when they saw  their danger, and that it was 

in vain to resist, they begged for  mercy.  The captain told them he would spare their lives if they  would give 

him an assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery  they  had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful 

to him in  recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to  Jamaica,  from whence they came.  They 

gave him all the  protestations of their  sincerity that could be desired; and he was  willing to believe them,  and 

spare their lives, which I was not  against, only that I obliged  him to keep them bound hand and foot  while 

they were on the island. 



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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 they did; and by-and-by three straggling men, that were  (happily for them) 

parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the  guns fired; and seeing the captain, who was before their 

prisoner,  now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so our  victory was complete. 



It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one  another's circumstances.  I began first, and told 

him my whole  history, which he heard with an attention even to amazement - and  particularly at the 

wonderful manner of my being furnished with  provisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a 

whole  collection of wonders, it affected him deeply.  But when he  reflected  from thence upon himself, and 

how I seemed to have been  preserved  there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his  face, and he 

could not speak a word more.  After this communication  was at an end,  I carried him and his two men into my 

apartment,  leading them in just  where I came out, viz. at the top of the  house, where I refreshed them  with 

such provisions as I had, and  showed them all the contrivances I  had made during my long, long  inhabiting 

that place. 



All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but  above all, the captain admired my 

fortification, and how perfectly  I  had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which having been  now 

planted nearly twenty years, and the trees growing much faster  than in  England, was become a little wood, so 

thick that it was  impassable in  any part of it but at that one side where I had  reserved my little  winding 

passage into it.  I told him this was my  castle and my  residence, but that I had a seat in the country, as  most 

princes have,  whither I could retreat upon occasion, and I    would show him that too  another time; but at 

present our business  was to consider how to  recover the ship.  He agreed with me as to  that, but told me he 

was  perfectly at a loss what measures to take,  for that there were still  six-and-twenty hands on board, who, 

having entered into a cursed  conspiracy, by which they had all  forfeited their lives to the law,  would be 

hardened in it now by  desperation, and would carry it on,     knowing that if they were  subdued they would be 

brought to the gallows  as soon as they came  to England, or to any of the English colonies,  and that, therefore, 

there would be no attacking them with so small a  number as we were. 



I mused for some time on what he had said, and found it was a very  rational conclusion, and that therefore 

something was to be  resolved  on speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some  snare for  their surprise 

as to prevent their landing upon us, and  destroying us.  Upon this, it presently occurred to me that in a  little 

while the  ship's crew, wondering what was become of their  comrades and of the  boat, would certainly come 

on shore in their  other boat to look for  them, and that then, perhaps, they might  come armed, and be too 

strong  for us: this he allowed to be  rational.  Upon this, I told him the  first thing we had to do was   to stave the 

boat which lay upon the  beach, so that they might not  carry her of, and taking everything out  of her, leave her 

so far  useless as not to be fit to swim.  Accordingly, we went on board,  took the arms which were left on 

board  out of her, and whatever  else we found there - which was a bottle of  brandy, and another of  rum, a few 

biscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and  a great lump of  sugar in a piece of canvas (the sugar was five or six 

pounds): all  which was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and  sugar, of  which I had had none left for 

many years. 



When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, mast,  sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away 

before), we knocked  a  great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to  master us, yet they 

could not carry off the boat.  Indeed, it was  not  much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover the ship; 

but my  view was, that if they went away without the boat, I did not  much  question to make her again fit to 

carry as to the Leeward  Islands, and  call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way, for I  had them still in  my 

thoughts. 



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                          CHAPTER XVIII - THE SHIP RECOVERED 



WHILE we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main  strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, 

so high that the tide  would  not float her off at high-water mark, and besides, had broke  a hole in  her bottom 

too big to be quickly stopped, and were set  down musing  what we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, 

and  make a waft with  her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on  board - but no boat  stirred; and they fired 

several times, making  other signals for the  boat.  At last, when all their signals and  firing proved fruitless,  and 

they found the boat did not stir, we  saw them, by the help of my  glasses, hoist another boat out and row 

towards the shore; and we  found, as they approached, that there  were no less than ten men in  her, and that 

they had firearms with  them. 



As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full  view of them as the came, and a plain sight 

even of their faces;  because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other  boat, they rowed up under 

shore, to come to the same place where  the  other had landed, and where the boat lay; by this means, I say,  we 

had  a full view of them, and the captain knew the persons and  characters  of all the men in the boat, of whom, 

he said, there were  three very  honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this  conspiracy by the  rest, 

being over-powered and frightened; but that  as for the  boatswain, who it seems was the chief officer among 

them, and all the  rest, they were as outrageous as any of the  ship's crew, and were no  doubt made desperate in 

their new  enterprise; and terribly  apprehensive he was that they would be too  powerful for us.  I smiled  at him, 

and told him that men in our  circumstances were past the  operation of fear; that seeing almost  every condition 

that could be  was better than that which we were  supposed to be in, we ought to  expect that the consequence, 

whether  death or life, would be sure to  be a deliverance.  I asked him what  he thought of the circumstances of 

my life, and whether a  deliverance were not worth venturing for?  "And  where, sir," said  I, "is your belief of 

my being preserved here on  purpose to save  your life, which elevated you a little while ago?  For  my part," 

said I, "there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the  prospect  of it."  "What is that?" say she.  "Why," said I, 

"it is,  that as  you say there are three or four honest fellows among them  which  should be spared, had they 

been all of the wicked part of the  crew  I should have thought God's providence had singled them out to 

deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that  comes ashore is our own, and shall die or 

live as they behave to  us."  As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance,  I found  it greatly 

encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our  business. 



We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the  ship, considered of separating our prisoners; 

and we had, indeed,  secured them effectually.  Two of them, of whom the captain was  less  assured than 

ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the  three  delivered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough, 

and  out of  danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way  out of  the woods if they could have 

delivered themselves.  Here  they left  them bound, but gave them provisions; and promised them,  if they 

continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a  day or two;  but that if they attempted their escape they 

should be  put to death  without mercy.  They promised faithfully to bear their  confinement  with patience, and 

were very thankful that they had  such good usage as  to have provisions and light left them; for  Friday gave 

them candles  (such as we made ourselves) for their  comfort; and they did not know  but that he stood sentinel 

over them  at the entrance. 



The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept  pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not 

able to trust them;  but  the other two were taken into my service, upon the captain's  recommendation, and 

upon their solemnly engaging to live and die  with  us; so with them and the three honest men we were seven 

men,  well  armed; and I made no doubt we should be able to deal well  enough with  the ten that were coming, 

considering that the captain  had said there  were three or four honest men among them also.  As  soon as they 

got to  the place where their other boat lay, they ran  their boat into the  beach and came all on shore, hauling 

the boat  up after them, which I  was glad to see, for I was afraid they would  rather have left the boat  at an 

anchor some distance from the  shore, with some hands in her to  guard her, and so we should not be  able to 



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seize the boat.  Being on  shore, the first thing they did,  they ran all to their other boat; and  it was easy to see 

they were  under a great surprise to find her  stripped, as above, of all that  was in her, and a great hole in her 

bottom.  After they had mused a  while upon this, they set up two or  three great shouts, hallooing  with all their 

might, to try if they  could make their companions  hear; but all was to no purpose.  Then  they came all close in 

a  ring, and fired a volley of their small arms,  which indeed we  heard, and the echoes made the woods ring. 

But it was  all one;  those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear; and those in  our  keeping, though they 

heard it well enough, yet durst give no  answer  to them.  They were so astonished at the surprise of this,  that, 

as  they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board  again to  their ship, and let them know that the men 

were all murdered,  and  the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their  boat again, and 

got all of them on board. 



The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this,  believing they would go on board the ship 

again and set sail,  giving  their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose  the ship,  which he was in 

hopes we should have recovered; but he  was quickly as  much frightened the other way. 



They had not been long put off with the boat, when we perceived  them all coming on shore again; but with 

this new measure in their  conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave  three men in the 

boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into  the country to look for their fellows.  This was a great 

disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do, as our  seizing those seven men on shore would be 

no advantage to us if we  let the boat escape; because they would row away to the ship, and  then the rest of 

them would be sure to weigh 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 things might present.  The  seven men  came on shore, and the 

three who remained in the boat put  her off to a  good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to  wait 

for them;  so that it was impossible for us to come at them in  the boat.  Those  that came on shore kept close 

together, marching  towards the top of  the little hill under which my habitation lay;  and we could see them 

plainly, though they could not perceive us.  We should have been very  glad if they would have come nearer 

us, so  that we might have fired at  them, or that they would have gone  farther off, that we might come  abroad. 

But when they were come to  the brow of the hill where they  could see a great way into the  valleys and 

woods, which lay towards  the north-east part, and where        the island lay lowest, they shouted and  hallooed till 

they were  weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture  far from the shore, nor  far from one another, they sat 

down together  under a tree to  consider it.  Had they thought fit to have gone to  sleep there, as  the other part of 

them had done, they had done the job  for us; but  they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture  to 

go to  sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they  had to  fear. 



The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation  of theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all 

fire a volley again, to  endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally  upon them just at the 

juncture when their pieces were all  discharged,  and they would certainly yield, and we should have them 

without  bloodshed.  I liked this proposal, provided it was done  while we were  near enough to come up to them 

before they could load  their pieces  again.  But this event did not happen; and we lay  still a long time,  very 

irresolute what course to take.  At length  I told them there  would be nothing done, in my opinion, till night; 

and then, if they  did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find  a way to get between  them and the shore, 

and so might use some  stratagem with them in the  boat to get them on shore.  We waited a  great while, though 

very  impatient for their removing; and were  very uneasy when, after long  consultation, we saw them all start 

up  and march down towards the sea;  it seems they had such dreadful  apprehensions of the danger of the  place 

that they resolved to go  on board the ship again, give their  companions over for lost, and  so go on with their 

intended voyage with  the ship. 



As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to  be as it really was that they had given over 

their search, and were  going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my  thoughts,  was ready to sink 

at the apprehensions of it; but I  presently thought  of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and  which 

answered my end to  a tittle.   I ordered Friday and the  captain's mate to go over the  little creek westward, 



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towards the  place where the savages came on  shore, when Friday was rescued, and  so soon as they came to a 

little  rising round, at about half a mile  distant, I bid them halloo out, as  loud as they could, and wait  till they 

found the seamen heard them;  that as soon as ever they  heard the seamen answer them, they should  return it 

again; and  then, keeping out of sight, take a round, always  answering when the  others hallooed, to draw them 

as far into the  island and among the  woods as possible, and then wheel about again to  me by such ways as  I 

directed them. 



They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate  hallooed; and they presently heard them, and 

answering, ran along  the  shore westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were  stopped  by the creek, 

where the water being up, they could not get  over, and  called for the boat to come up and set them over; as, 

indeed, I  expected.  When they had set themselves over, I observed  that the boat  being gone a good way into 

the creek, and, as it  were, in a harbour  within the land, they took one of the three men  out of her, to go  along 

with them, and left only two in the boat,  having fastened her to  the stump of a little tree on the shore.  This 

was what I wished for;  and immediately leaving Friday and the  captain's mate to their  business, I took the rest 

with me; and,  crossing the creek out of  their sight, we surprised the two men  before they were aware - one of 

them lying on the shore, and the  other being in the boat.  The fellow  on shore was between sleeping  and 

waking, and going to start up; the  captain, who was foremost,  ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and 

then called out to him  in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.  They needed very few  arguments to 

persuade a single man to yield,  when he saw five men  upon him and his comrade knocked down: besides,  this 

was, it seems,  one of the three who were not so hearty in the  mutiny as the rest  of the crew, and therefore was 

easily persuaded not  only to yield,  but afterwards to join very sincerely with us.  In the  meantime,  Friday and 

the captain's mate so well managed their business  with  the rest that they drew them, by hallooing and 

answering, from  one  hill to another, and from one wood to another, till they not only  heartily tired them, but 

left them where they were, very sure they          could not reach back to the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, 

they were heartily tired themselves also, by the time they came  back  to us. 



We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to  fall upon them, so as to make sure work 

with them.  It was several  hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their  boat; and we 

could hear the foremost of them, long before they came  quite up, calling to those behind to come along; and 

could also  hear  them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and  not able  to come any faster: 

which was very welcome news to us.  At  length they  came up to the boat: but it is impossible to express  their 

confusion  when they found the boat fast aground in the creek,  the tide ebbed  out, and their two men gone.  We 

could hear them  call one to another  in a most lamentable manner, telling one  another they were got into an 

enchanted island; that either there  were inhabitants in it, and they  should all be murdered, or else  there were 

devils and spirits in it,  and they should be all carried  away and devoured.  They hallooed  again, and called 

their two  comrades by their names a great many  times; but no answer.  After  some time we could see them, by 

the  little light there was, run  about, wringing their hands like men in  despair, and sometimes they  would go 

and sit down in the boat to rest  themselves: then come  ashore again, and walk about again, and so the  same 

thing over  again.  My men would fain have had me give them leave  to fall upon  them at once in the dark; but I 

was willing to take them  at some  advantage, so as to spare them, and kill as few of them as I  could;  and 

especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of  our  men, knowing the others were very well armed. 

I resolved to wait,  to see if they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure of  them,  I drew my ambuscade 

nearer, and ordered Friday and the  captain to  creep upon their hands and feet, as close to the ground  as they 

could,  that they might not be discovered, and get as near  them as they could  possibly before they offered to 

fire. 



They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was  the principal ringleader of the mutiny, 

and had now shown himself          the  most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking  towards              them, with 

two more of the crew; the captain was so eager  at having  this principal rogue so much in his power, that he 

could  hardly have  patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him,  for they only  heard his tongue 

before: but when they came nearer,  the captain and  Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at them.  The 



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boatswain was  killed upon the spot: the next man was shot in  the body, and fell just  by him, though he did not 

die till an hour  or two after; and the third  ran for it.  At the noise of the fire I  immediately advanced with my 

whole army, which was now eight men,  viz. myself, generalissimo;  Friday, my lieutenant-general; the 

captain and his two men, and the  three prisoners of war whom we had  trusted with arms.  We came upon 

them, indeed, in the dark, so that  they could not see our number; and  I made the man they had left in  the boat, 

who was now one of us, to  call them by name, to try if I  could bring them to a parley, and so  perhaps might 

reduce them to  terms; which fell out just as we desired:  for indeed it was easy to  think, as their condition then 

was, they  would be very willing to  capitulate.  So he calls out as loud as he  could to one of them,  "Tom 

Smith!  Tom Smith!"  Tom Smith answered  immediately, "Is that  Robinson?" for it seems he knew the voice. 

The  other answered,  "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your  arms and yield,  or you are all 

dead men this moment."  "Who must we  yield to?  Where are they?" says Smith again.  "Here they are," says 

he;  "here's our captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting you  these two hours; the boatswain is 

killed; Will Fry is wounded, and  I  am a prisoner; and if you do not yield you are all lost."  "Will  they  give us 

quarter, then?" says Tom Smith, "and we will yield."  "I'll go  and ask, if you promise to yield," said Robinson: 

so he  asked the  captain, and the captain himself then calls out, "You,  Smith, you know  my voice; if you lay 

down your arms immediately and  submit, you shall  have your lives, all but Will Atkins." 



Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me  quarter; what have I done?  They have all 

been as bad as I:" which,  by the way, was not true; for it seems this Will Atkins was the  first  man that laid 

hold of the captain when they first mutinied,  and used  him barbarously in tying his hands and giving him 

injurious language.  However, the captain told him he must lay down  his arms at  discretion, and trust to the 

governor's mercy: by which  he meant me,  for they all called me governor.  In a word, they all  laid down their 

arms and begged their lives; and I sent the man  that had parleyed with  them, and two more, who bound them 

all; and  then my great army of  fifty men, which, with those three, were in  all but eight, came up and  seized 

upon them, and upon their boat;  only that I kept myself and one  more out of sight for reasons of  state. 



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

to parley with  them,  he expostulated with them upon the villainy of their  practices with  him, and upon the 

further wickedness of their  design, and how  certainly it must bring them to misery and distress  in the end, and 

perhaps to the gallows.  They all appeared very  penitent, and begged  hard for their lives.  As for that, he told 

them they were not his  prisoners, but the commander's of the  island; that they thought they  had set him on 

shore in a barren,  uninhabited island; but it had  pleased God so to direct them that  it was inhabited, and that 

the  governor was an Englishman; that he  might hang them all there, if he  pleased; but as he had given them 

all quarter, he supposed he would  send them to England, to be dealt  with there as justice required,     except 

Atkins, whom he was  commanded by the governor to advise to  prepare for death, for that  he would be hanged 

in the morning. 



Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its  desired effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the 

captain to  intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged  of  him, for God's sake, that they 

might not be sent to England. 



It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come,  and that it would be a most easy thing to 

bring these fellows in to  be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the  dark  from them, that 

they might not see what kind of a governor  they had,  and called the captain to me; when I called, at a good 

distance, one  of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the  captain,  "Captain, the commander calls 

for you;" and presently the  captain  replied, "Tell his excellency I am just coming."  This more  perfectly 

amazed them, and they all believed that the commander was  just by,  with his fifty men.  Upon the captain 

coming to me, I told  him my  project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully  well, and  resolved to 

put it in execution 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 of 

them, and send them  pinioned to the cave  where the others lay.  This was committed to  Friday and the two 



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men  who came on shore with the captain.  They  conveyed them to the cave as  to a prison: and it was, indeed, 

a  dismal place, especially to men in  their condition.  The others I  ordered to my bower, as I called it, of  which 

I have given a full  description: and as it was fenced in, and  they pinioned, the place  was secure enough, 

considering they were upon  their behaviour. 



To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a  parley with them; in a word, to try them, 

and tell me whether he  thought they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise  the  ship.  He talked to 

them of the injury done him, of the  condition they  were brought to, and that though the governor had  given 

them quarter  for their lives as to the present action, yet  that if they were sent  to England they would all be 

hanged in  chains; but that if they would  join in so just an attempt as to  recover the ship, he would have the 

governor's engagement for their  pardon. 



Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by  men in their condition; they fell down 

on their knees to the  captain,  and promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they  would be  faithful to him 

to the last drop, and that they should owe  their lives  to him, and would go with him all over the world; that 

they would own  him as a father to them as long as they lived.  "Well," says the  captain, "I must go and tell the 

governor what you  say, and see what I  can do to bring him to consent to it."  So he  brought me an account of 

the temper he found them in, and that he  verily believed they would be  faithful.  However, that we might be 

very secure, I told him he should  go back again and choose out  those five, and tell them, that they  might see 

he did not want men,  that he would take out those five to be  his assistants, and that  the governor would keep 

the other two, and  the three that were sent  prisoners to the castle (my cave), as  hostages for the fidelity of 

those five; and that if they proved  unfaithful in the execution,  the five hostages should be hanged in  chains 

alive on the shore.  This looked severe, and convinced them that  the governor was in  earnest; however, they 

had no way left them but to  accept it; and  it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of  the  captain, 

to persuade the other five to do their duty. 



Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the  captain, his mate, and passenger; second, the 

two prisoners of the  first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I had  given their liberty, and 

trusted them with arms; third, the other  two  that I had kept till now in my bower, pinioned, but on the 

captain's  motion had now released; fourth, these five released at  last; so that  there were twelve in all, besides 

five we kept  prisoners in the cave  for hostages. 



I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands  on board the ship; but as for me and my man 

Friday, I did not think  it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it  was employment 

enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them  with victuals.  As to the five in the cave, I resolved to 

keep them  fast, but Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with  necessaries; and I made the other 

two carry provisions to a certain  distance, where Friday was to take them. 



When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain,  who told them I was the person the 

governor had ordered to look  after  them; and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not  stir  anywhere 

but by my direction; that if they did, they would be  fetched  into the castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we 

never  suffered  them to see me as governor, I now appeared as another  person, and  spoke of the governor, the 

garrison, the castle, and  the like, upon  all occasions. 



The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his  two boats, stop the breach of one, and man 

them.  He made his  passenger captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his  mate, and five more, went 

in the other; and they contrived their  business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight.  As  soon 

as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail  them,  and tell them they had brought off the men 

and the boat, but  that it  was a long time before they had found them, and the like,  holding them  in a chat till 

they came to the ship's side; when the  captain and the  mate entering first with their arms, immediately 

knocked down the  second mate and carpenter with the butt-end of  their muskets, being  very faithfully 



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seconded by their men; they  secured all the rest that  were upon the main and quarter decks, and  began to 

fasten the hatches,  to keep them down that were below;  when the other boat and their men,  entering at the 

forechains,  secured the forecastle of the ship, and  the scuttle which went down  into the cook-room, making 

three men they  found there prisoners.  When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the  captain ordered the 

mate, with three men, to break into the  round-house, where the new  rebel captain lay, who, having taken the 

alarm, had got up, and  with two men and a boy had got firearms in  their hands; and when  the mate, with a 

crow, split open the door, the  new captain and his  men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate  with 

a musket  ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the  men, but  killed nobody.  The mate, calling 

for help, rushed, however,  into  the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with his pistol, shot  the  new 

captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth,  and  came out again behind one of his ears, so that 

he never spoke a  word more: upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken  effectually, without any 

more lives lost. 



As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven  guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed 

upon with me to give  me  notice of his success, which, you may be sure, I was very glad  to  hear, having sat 

watching upon the shore for it till near two  o'clock  in the morning.  Having thus heard the signal plainly, I  laid 

me down;  and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I  slept very sound,  till I was surprised with the 

noise of a gun; and  presently starting  up, I heard a man call me by the name of  "Governor!  Governor!" and 

presently I knew the captain's voice;  when, climbing up to the top of  the hill, there he stood, and,  pointing to 

the ship, he embraced me in  his arms, "My dear friend  and deliverer," says he, "there's your ship;  for she is all 

yours,  and so are we, and all that belong to her."  I  cast my eyes to the  ship, and there she rode, within little 

more than  half a mile of  the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as  they were  masters of her, and, 

the weather being fair, had brought her  to an  anchor just against the mouth of the little creek; and the tide 

being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place  where  I had first landed my rafts, and so 

landed just at my door.  I was at  first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my  deliverance,  indeed, 

visibly put into my hands, all things easy,  and a large ship  just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to 

go.  At first, for  some time, I was not able to answer him one  word; but as he had taken  me in his arms I held 

fast by him, or I  should have fallen to the  ground.  He perceived the surprise, and  immediately pulled a bottle 

out of his pocket and gave me a dram of  cordial, which he had brought  on purpose for me.  After I had drunk 

it, I sat down upon the ground;  and though it brought me to myself,  yet it was a good while before I  could 

speak a word to him.  All  this time the poor man was in as great  an ecstasy as I, only not  under any surprise as 

I was; and he said a  thousand kind and tender  things to me, to compose and bring me to  myself; but such was 

the  flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my  spirits into  confusion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a 

little while  after I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and  embraced him  as my deliverer, and we 

rejoiced together.  I told him I  looked  upon him as a man sent by Heaven to deliver me, and that the  whole 

transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as  these were the testimonies we had of a secret 

hand of Providence  governing the world, and an evidence that the eye of an infinite  Power could search into 

the remotest corner of the world, and send  help to the miserable whenever He pleased.  I forgot not to lift up 

my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to  bless Him, who had not only in a 

miraculous manner provided for me  in  such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from  whom 

every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed. 



When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me  some little refreshment, such as the ship 

afforded, and such as the  wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him  of.  Upon this, he 

called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring  the  things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it 

was a  present as if I had been one that was not to be carried away with  them, but as if I had been to dwell 

upon the island still.  First,  he  had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial  waters, six  large 

bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two  quarts each), two  pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve 

good  pieces of the ship's  beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of  peas, and about a  hundred-weight of 

biscuit; he also brought me a  box of sugar, a box of  flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bottles  of lime-juice, 

and  abundance of other things.  But besides these,  and what was a thousand  times more useful to me, he 



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brought me six  new clean shirts, six very    good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one  pair of shoes, a hat, and 

one  pair of stockings, with a very good  suit of clothes of his own, which  had been worn but very little: in  a 

word, he clothed me from head to  foot.  It was a very kind and  agreeable present, as any one may  imagine, to 

one in my  circumstances, but never was anything in the  world of that kind so  unpleasant, awkward, and 

uneasy as it was to me  to wear such  clothes at first. 



After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things  were brought into my little apartment, we 

began to consult what was  to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering  whether we 

might venture to take them with us or no, especially two  of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and 

refractory to the last  degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that  there  was no obliging 

them, and if he did carry them away, it must  be in  irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the 

first  English colony he could come to; and I found that the captain  himself  was very anxious about it.  Upon 

this, I told him that, if  he desired  it, I would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of  to make it  their own 

request that he should leave them upon the  island.  "I  should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with  all 

my heart."  "Well," says I, "I will send for them up and talk  with them for you."  So I caused Friday and the 

two hostages, for  they were now  discharged, their comrades having performed their  promise; I say, I  caused 

them to go to the cave, and bring up the  five men, pinioned as  they were, to the bower, and keep them there 

till I came.  After some  time, I came thither dressed in my new  habit; and now I was called  governor again. 

Being all met, and the  captain with me, I caused the  men to be brought before me, and I  told them I had got a 

full account  of their villainous behaviour to  the captain, and how they had run  away with the ship, and were 

preparing to commit further robberies,  but that Providence had  ensnared them in their own ways, and that 

they  were fallen into the  pit which they had dug for others.  I let them  know that by my  direction the ship had 

been seized; that she lay now  in the road;  and they might see by-and-by that their new captain had  received 

the reward of his villainy, and that they would see him  hanging at  the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted to 

know what they  had to  say why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact,  as  by my commission 

they could not doubt but I had authority so to do. 



One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing  to say but this, that when they were taken 

the captain promised  them  their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy.  But I told  them I  knew not what 

mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had  resolved to  quit the island with all my men, and had taken 

passage  with the  captain to go to England; and as for the captain, he could  not carry  them to England other 

than as prisoners in irons, to be  tried for  mutiny and running away with the ship; the consequence of  which, 

they  must needs know, would be the 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 desired that, as I had liberty  to leave the island, I  had some 

inclination to give them their  lives, if they thought they  could shift on shore.  They seemed very  thankful for 

it, and said they  would much rather venture to stay  there than be carried to England to  be hanged.  So I left it 

on  that issue. 



However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he  durst not leave them there.  Upon this I 

seemed a little angry with  the captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and  that seeing I had 

offered them so much favour, I would be as good  as  my word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I 

would set  them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did not like  it he might  take them again if he could catch 

them.  Upon this they  appeared very  thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and  bade them retire  into 

the woods, to the place whence they came, and  I would leave them  some firearms, some ammunition, and 

some  directions how they should  live very well if they thought fit.  Upon this I prepared to go on  board the 

ship; but told the captain  I would stay that night to  prepare my things, and desired him to go  on board in the 

meantime, 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. 



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When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my  apartment, and entered seriously into discourse 

with them on their  circumstances.  I told them I thought they had made a right choice;  that if the captain had 

carried them away they would certainly be  hanged.  I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm 

of  the  ship, and told them they had nothing less to expect. 



When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told  them I would let them into the story of my 

living there, and put  them  into the way of making it easy to them.  Accordingly, I gave  them the  whole history 

of the place, and of my coming to it; showed  them my  fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my 

corn,  cured my  grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make  them easy.  I  told them the story also of 

the seventeen Spaniards  that were to be  expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them  promise to treat 

them in common with themselves.  Here it may be  noted that the  captain, who had ink on board, was greatly 

surprised  that I never hit  upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water, or  of something else,  as I had done 

things much more difficult. 



I left them my firearms - viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces,  and three swords.  I had above a barrel and 

a half of powder left;  for after the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none.  I  gave them a 

description of the way I managed the goats, and  directions  to milk and fatten them, and to make both butter 

and  cheese.  In a  word, I gave them every part of my own story; and  told them I should  prevail with the 

captain to leave them two  barrels of gunpowder more,  and some garden-seeds, which I told them           I would 

have been very glad  of.  Also, I gave them the bag of peas  which the captain had brought  me to eat, and bade 

them be sure to  sow and increase them. 



                           CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO ENGLAND 



HAVING done all this I left them the next day, and went on board  the ship.  We prepared immediately to sail, 

but did not weigh that  night.  The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming  to  the ship's side, 

and making the most lamentable complaint of the  other  three, begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake, 

for  they  should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on  board,  though he hanged them 

immediately.  Upon this the captain  pretended to  have no power without me; but after some difficulty,  and 

after their  solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on  board, and were, some  time after, soundly 

whipped and pickled;  after which they proved very  honest and quiet fellows. 



Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being  up, with the things promised to the men; to 

which the captain, at  my  intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which  they  took, and were 

very thankful for.  I also encouraged them, by  telling  them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take 

them in, I  would not forget them. 



When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics,  the great goat-skin cap I had made, my 

umbrella, and one of my  parrots; also, I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned,  which had lain by 

me so long useless that it was grown rusty or  tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver till it had been a  little 

rubbed and handled, as also the money I found in the wreck  of the  Spanish ship.  And thus I left the island, the 

19th of  December, as I  found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after  I had been upon  it 

eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen  days; being  delivered from this second captivity the same 

day of  the month that I  first made my escape in the long-boat from among  the Moors of Sallee.  In this vessel, 

after a long voyage, I  arrived in England the 11th of  June, in the year 1687, having been  thirty-five years 

absent. 



When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world  as if I had never been known there.  My 

benefactor and faithful  steward, whom I had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had  had great 

misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second  time, and very low in the world.  I made her very 



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easy as to what  she  owed me, assuring her I would give her no trouble; but, on the  contrary, in gratitude for 

her former care and faithfulness to me,  I  relieved her as my little stock would afford; which at that time 

would, indeed, allow me to do but little for her; but I assured her  I  would never forget her former kindness to 

me; nor did I forget  her  when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its  proper  place.  I went 

down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father  was dead,  and my mother and all the family extinct, except 

that I  found two  sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers;  and as I had  been long ago given over 

for dead, there had been no  provision made  for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to  relieve or assist me; 

and that the little money I had would not do  much for me as to  settling in the world. 



I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect;  and this was, that the master of the ship, 

whom I had so happily  delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having  given a very 

handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had        saved the lives of the men and the ship, they 

invited me to meet  them  and some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a  very  handsome 

compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost  200  pounds sterling. 



But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my  life, and how little way this would go 

towards settling me in the  world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at  some information 

of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and  of  what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to 

suppose, had  some  years past given me over for dead.  With this view I took  shipping for  Lisbon, where I 

arrived in April following, my man  Friday accompanying  me very honestly in all these ramblings, and 

proving a most faithful  servant upon all occasions.  When I came to  Lisbon, I found out, by  inquiry, and to my 

particular satisfaction,  my old friend, the captain  of the ship who first took me up at sea  off the shore of 

Africa.  He  was now grown old, and had left off  going to sea, having put his son,  who was far from a young 

man,  into his ship, and who still used the  Brazil trade.  The old man  did not know me, and indeed I hardly 

knew  him.  But I soon brought  him to my remembrance, and as soon brought  myself to his  remembrance, 

when I told him who I was. 



After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between  us, I inquired, you may he sure, after my 

plantation and my  partner.  The old man told me he had not been in the Brazils for  about nine  years; but that 

he could assure me that when he came  away my partner  was living, but the trustees whom I had joined with 

him to take  cognisance of my part were both dead: that, however, he  believed I  would have a very good 

account of the improvement of the  plantation;  for that, upon the general belief of my being cast away  and 

drowned,  my trustees had given in the account of the produce of  my part of the  plantation to the 

procurator-fiscal, who had  appropriated it, in case  I never came to claim it, one-third to the  king, and 

two-thirds to the  monastery of St. Augustine, to be  expended for the benefit of the  poor, and for the 

conversion of the  Indians to the Catholic faith: but  that, if I appeared, or any one  for me, to claim the 

inheritance, it  would be restored; only that  the improvement, or annual production,  being distributed to 

charitable uses, could not be restored: but he  assured me that the  steward of the king's revenue from lands, 

and the  providore, or  steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along  that the  incumbent, that is to 

say my partner, gave every year a  faithful  account of the produce, of which they had duly received my 

moiety.  I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had  brought  the plantation, and whether he 

thought it might be worth  looking  after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any  obstruction 

to my possessing my just right in the moiety.  He told  me  he could not tell exactly to what degree the 

plantation was  improved;  but this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding  rich upon the  enjoying his 

part of it; and that, to the best of his  remembrance, he  had heard that the king's third of my part, which  was, it 

seems,  granted away to some other monastery or religious  house, amounted to  above two hundred moidores a 

year: that as to my  being restored to a  quiet possession of it, there was no question  to be made of that, my 

partner being alive to witness my title, and  my name being also  enrolled in the register of the country; also he 

told me that the  survivors of my two trustees were very fair,  honest people, and very  wealthy; and he believed 

I would not only  have their assistance for  putting me in possession, but would find  a very considerable sum 

of  money in their hands for my account,  being the produce of the farm  while their fathers held the trust,  and 



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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, and  inquired of the old captain how it came to 

pass that the trustees  should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my  will, and had made 

him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, 



He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my  being dead, he could not act as executor until 

some certain account  should come of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to  intermeddle with a thing 

so remote: that it was true he had  registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given  any 

account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by  procuration,  and taken possession of the ingenio 

(so they call the  sugar-house),  and have given his son, who was now at the Brazils,  orders to do it.  "But," 

says the old man, "I have one piece of  news to tell you, which  perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as  the 

rest; and that is,  believing you were lost, and all the world  believing so also, your  partner and trustees did 

offer to account  with me, in your name, for  the first six or eight years' profits,  which I received.  There being 

at that time great disbursements for  increasing the works, building an  ingenio, and buying slaves, it  did not 

amount to near so much as  afterwards it produced; however,"  says the old man, "I shall give you  a true 

account of what I have  received in all, and how I have disposed  of it." 



After a few days' further conference with this ancient friend, he  brought me an account of the first six years' 

income of my  plantation, signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being  always delivered in goods, 

viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in  chests,  besides rum, molasses, which is the consequence of a  sugar-work; 

and I  found by this account, that every year the income  considerably  increased; but, as above, the 

disbursements being  large, the sum at  first was small: however, the old man let me see  that he was debtor to 

me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold,  besides sixty chests of  sugar and fifteen double rolls of 

tobacco,  which were lost in his  ship; he having been shipwrecked coming home  to Lisbon, about eleven  years 

after my having the place.  The good  man then began to complain  of his misfortunes, and how he had been 

obliged to make use of my  money to 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 son  returns you shall be 

fully  satisfied."  Upon this he pulls out an  old pouch, and gives me one  hundred and sixty Portugal moidores 

in  gold; and giving the writings  of his title to the ship, which his  son was gone to the Brazils in, of  which he 

was quarter-part owner,  and his son another, he puts them  both into my hands for security  of the rest. 



I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man  to be able to bear this; and 

remembering what he had done for me,  how  he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me 

on  all  occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to  me, I  could hardly refrain weeping at 

what he had said to me;  therefore I  asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so  much money at 

that time, and if it would not straiten him?  He told  me he could not  say but it might straiten him a little; but, 

however, it was my money,  and I might want it more than he. 



Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could  hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in 

short, I took one  hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a  receipt for them: then I 

returned him the rest, and told him if  ever  I had possession of the plantation I would return the other to  him 

also (as, indeed, I afterwards did); and that as to the bill of  sale  of his part in his son's ship, I would not take it 

by any  means; but  that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough  to pay me;  and if I did not, but 

came to receive what he gave me  reason to  expect, I would never have a penny more from him. 



When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a  method to make my claim to my 

plantation.  I told him I thought to  go  over to it myself.  He said I might do so if I pleased, but that  if I  did not, 

there were ways enough to secure my right, and  immediately to  appropriate the profits to my use: and as there 

were  ships in the  river of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he  made me enter my  name in a public 

register, with his affidavit,  affirming, upon oath,  that I was alive, and that I was the same  person who took up 



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the land  for the planting the said plantation at  first.  This being regularly  attested by a notary, and a 

procuration affixed, he directed me to  send it, with a letter of  his writing, to a merchant of his  acquaintance at 

the place; and  then proposed my staying with him till  an account came of the  return. 



Never was anything more honourable than the proceedings upon this  procuration; for in less than seven 

months I received a large  packet  from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose  account I  went 

to sea, in which were the following, particular  letters and  papers enclosed:- 



First, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or  plantation, from the year when their fathers 

had balanced with my  old  Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to  be one  thousand one 

hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour. 



Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept  the effects in their hands, before the 

government claimed the  administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found,  which they called 

civil death; and the balance of this, the value  of  the plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four 

hundred  and forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two  hundred and  forty moidores. 



Thirdly, there was the Prior of St. Augustine's account, who had  received the profits for above fourteen years; 

but not being able  to  account for what was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly  declared he had eight 

hundred and seventy-two moidores not  distributed, which he acknowledged to my account: as to the king's 

part, that refunded nothing. 



There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very  affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an 

account how the  estate was improved, and what it produced a year; with the  particulars of the number of 

squares, or acres that it contained,  how  planted, how many slaves there were upon it: and making two- 

and-twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many AVE  MARIAS to thank the Blessed Virgin 

that I was alive; inviting me  very  passionately to come over and take possession of my own, and  in the 

meantime to give him orders to whom he should deliver my  effects if I  did not come myself; concluding with 

a hearty tender  of his  friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a present  seven  fine leopards' skins, 

which he had, it seems, received from  Africa, by  some other ship that he had sent thither, and which, it 

seems, had  made a better voyage than I.  He sent me also five  chests of excellent  sweetmeats, and a hundred 

pieces of gold  uncoined, not quite so large  as moidores.  By the same fleet my two  merchant-trustees shipped 

me  one thousand two hundred chests of  sugar, eight hundred rolls of  tobacco, and the rest of the whole 

account in gold. 



I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better  than the beginning.  It is impossible to 

express the flutterings of  my very heart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the  Brazil  ships come all 

in fleets, the same ships which brought my  letters  brought my goods: and the effects were safe in the river 

before the  letters came to my hand.  In a word, I turned pale, and  grew sick;  and, had not the old man run and 

fetched me a cordial, I  believe the  sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had  died upon the  spot: 

nay, after that I continued very ill, and was  so some hours,  till a physician being sent for, and something of 

the real cause of my  illness being known, he ordered me to be let  blood; after which I had  relief, and grew 

well: but I verify  believe, if I had not been eased  by a vent given in that manner to  the spirits, I should have 

died. 



I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds  sterling in money, and had an estate, as I 

might well call it, in  the  Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an  estate of  lands in England: 

and, in a word, I was in a condition  which I scarce  knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for 

the enjoyment of  it.  The first thing I did was to recompense my  original benefactor,  my good old captain, 

who had been first  charitable to me in my  distress, kind to me in my beginning, and  honest to me at the end.  I 

showed him all that was sent to me; I  told him that, next to the  providence of Heaven, which disposed all 



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things, it was owing to him;  and that it now lay on me to reward  him, which I would do a  hundred-fold: so I 

first returned to him  the hundred moidores I had  received of him; then I sent for a  notary, and caused him to 

draw up a  general release or discharge  from the four hundred and seventy  moidores, which he had 

acknowledged he owed me, in the fullest and  firmest manner  possible.  After which I caused a procuration to 

be  drawn,  empowering him to be the receiver of the annual profits of my  plantation: and appointing my 

partner to account with him, and make  the returns, by the usual fleets, to him in my name; and by a  clause  in 

the end, made a grant of one hundred moidores a year to  him during  his life, out of the effects, and fifty 

moidores a year  to his son  after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man. 



I had now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what  to do with the estate that Providence had 

thus put into my hands;  and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I had in my  state  of life in the 

island where I wanted nothing but what I had,  and had  nothing but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great 

charge  upon me,  and my business was how to secure it.  I had not a cave  now to hide my  money in, or a place 

where it might lie without lock  or key, till it  grew mouldy and tarnished before anybody would  meddle with 

it; on the  contrary, I knew not where to put it, or  whom to trust with it.  My  old patron, the captain, indeed, 

was  honest, and that was the only  refuge I had.  In the next place, my  interest in the Brazils seemed to 

summon me thither; but now I  could not tell how to think of going  thither till I had settled my  affairs, and left 

my effects in some  safe hands behind me.  At  first I thought of my old friend the widow,  who I knew was 

honest,  and would be just to me; but then she was in  years, and but poor,  and, for aught I knew, might be in 

debt: so that,  in a word, I had  no way but to go back to England myself and take my  effects with  me. 



It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and,  therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain 

fully, and to his  satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, so I began to  think  of the poor widow, 

whose husband had been my first  benefactor, and  she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward  and 

instructor.  So, the first thing I did, I got a merchant in  Lisbon to write to his  correspondent in London, not 

only to pay a  bill, but to go find her  out, and carry her, in money, a hundred  pounds from me, and to talk  with 

her, and comfort her in her  poverty, by telling her she should,  if I lived, have a further  supply: at the same 

time I sent my two  sisters in the country a  hundred pounds each, they being, though not  in want, yet not in 

very good circumstances; one having been married  and left a widow;  and the other having a husband not so 

kind to her as  he should be.  But among all my relations or acquaintances I could not  yet pitch  upon one to 

whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that  I might  go away to the Brazils, and leave things safe behind 

me; and  this  greatly perplexed me. 



I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and have settled  myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalised 

to the place; but  I  had some little scruple in my mind about religion, which  insensibly  drew me back. 

However, it was not religion that kept me  from going  there for the present; and as I had made no scruple of 

being openly of  the religion of the country all the while I was  among them, so neither  did I yet; only that, 

now and then, having  of late thought more of it  than formerly, when I began to think of  living and dying 

among them, I  began to regret having professed  myself a Papist, and thought it might  not be the best religion 

to  die with. 



But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from  going to the Brazils, but that really I did not 

know with whom to  leave my effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England,  where, if I arrived, I 

concluded that I should make some  acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be faithful to me;  and, 

accordingly, I prepared to go to England with all my wealth. 



In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Brazil  fleet being just going away) resolved to give 

answers suitable to  the  just and faithful account of things I had from thence; and,  first, to  the Prior of St. 

Augustine I wrote a letter full of  thanks for his  just dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred  and 

seventy-two  moidores which were undisposed of, which I desired  might be given,  five hundred to the 

monastery, and three hundred  and seventy-two to  the poor, as the prior should direct; desiring  the good 



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padre's  prayers for me, and the like.  I wrote next a  letter of thanks to my  two trustees, with all the 

acknowledgment  that so much justice and  honesty called for: as for sending them  any present, they were far 

above having any occasion of it.  Lastly, I wrote to my partner,  acknowledging his industry in the  improving 

the plantation, and his  integrity in increasing the stock  of the works; giving him  instructions for his future 

government of  my part, according to the  powers I had left with my old patron, to  whom I desired him to send 

whatever became due to me, till he  should hear from me more  particularly; assuring him that it was my 

intention not only to come  to him, but to settle myself there for  the remainder of my life.  To  this I added a 

very handsome present  of some Italian silks for his  wife and two daughters, for such the  captain's son 

informed me he had;  with two pieces of fine English  broadcloth, the best I could get in  Lisbon, five pieces of 

black  baize, and some Flanders lace of a good  value. 



Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my  effects into good bills of exchange, my next 

difficulty was which  way  to go to England: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and  yet I  had a strange 

aversion to go to England by the sea at that  time, and  yet I could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty 

increased upon  me so much, that though I had once shipped my  baggage in order to go,  yet I altered my 

mind, and that not once  but two or three times. 



It is true I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be  one of the reasons; but let no man slight the 

strong impulses of  his  own thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I  had  singled out 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  having agreed with the captain; I say two of these ships  miscarried.  One was taken by the Algerines, 

and the other was lost  on the Start,  near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three;  so that in  either of 

those vessels I had been made miserable. 



Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I  communicated everything, pressed me 

earnestly not to go by sea, but  either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of  Biscay  to 

Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey  by land  to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to 

go up to  Madrid, and so  all the way by land through France.  In a word, I  was so prepossessed  against my 

going by sea at all, except from  Calais to Dover, that I  resolved to travel all the way by land;  which, as I was 

not in haste,  and did not value the charge, was by  much the pleasanter way: and to  make it more so, my old 

captain  brought an English gentleman, the son  of a merchant in Lisbon, who  was willing to travel with me; 

after  which we picked up two more  English merchants also, and two young  Portuguese gentlemen, the  last 

going to Paris only; so that in all  there were six of us and  five servants; the two merchants and the two 

Portuguese, contenting  themselves with one servant between two, to  save the charge; and as  for me, I got an 

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 a servant on the road. 



In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being very  well mounted and armed, we made a little 

troop, whereof they did me  the honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest  man,  as because I 

had two servants, and, indeed, was the origin of  the  whole journey. 



As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall  trouble you now with none of my land 

journals; but some adventures  that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must  not  omit. 



When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain,  were willing to stay some time to see the 

court of Spain, and what  was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we  hastened away, 

and set out from Madrid about the middle of October;  but when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were 

alarmed, at  several  towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was  falling on the  French side of 

the mountains, that several  travellers were obliged to  come back to Pampeluna, after having  attempted at an 

extreme hazard to  pass on. 



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

climate, and to countries where  I  could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor,  indeed, was 

it more painful than surprising to come but ten days  before out of Old Castile, where the weather was not 

only warm but  very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean  Mountains  so very keen, so 

severely cold, as to be intolerable and  to endanger  benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes. 



Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all  covered with snow, and felt cold weather, 

which he had never seen  or  felt before in his life.  To mend the matter, when we came to  Pampeluna it 

continued snowing with so much violence and so long,  that the people said winter was come before its time; 

and the  roads,  which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; for,  in a  word, the snow lay in some 

places too thick for us to travel,  and  being not hard frozen, as is the case in the northern  countries, there  was 

no going without being in danger of being  buried alive every step.  We stayed no less than twenty days at 

Pampeluna; when (seeing the  winter coming on, and no likelihood of  its being better, for it was  the severest 

winter all over Europe  that had been known in the memory  of man) I proposed that we should  go away to 

Fontarabia, and there  take shipping for Bordeaux, which  was a very little voyage.  But,  while I was 

considering this, there  came in four French gentlemen,  who, having been stopped on the  French side of the 

passes, as we were  on the Spanish, had found out  a guide, who, traversing the country  near the head of 

Languedoc,  had brought them over the mountains by  such ways that they were not  much incommoded with 

the snow; for where  they met with snow in any  quantity, they said it was frozen hard  enough to bear them and 

their horses.  We sent for this guide, who  told us he would  undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard 

from the snow,  provided we were armed sufficiently to protect  ourselves from wild  beasts; for, he said, in 

these great snows it was  frequent for some  wolves to show themselves at the foot of the  mountains, being 

made  ravenous for want of food, the ground being  covered with snow.  We  told him we were well enough 

prepared for such  creatures as they  were, if he would insure us from a kind of  two-legged wolves, which  we 

were told we were in most danger from,  especially on the French  side of the mountains.  He satisfied us that 

there was no danger of  that kind in the way that we were to go; so we  readily agreed to  follow him, as did 

also twelve other gentlemen with  their servants,  some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had  attempted to 

go, and  were obliged to come back again. 



Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna with our guide on the 15th  of November; and indeed I was surprised 

when, instead of going  forward, he came directly back with us on the same road that we  came  from Madrid, 

about twenty miles; when, having passed two  rivers, and  come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a 

warm climate  again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to  be seen; but, on  a sudden, turning to his 

left, he approached the  mountains another  way; and though it is true the hills and  precipices looked dreadful, 

yet he made so many tours, such  meanders, and led us by such winding  ways, that we insensibly  passed the 

height of the mountains without  being much encumbered  with the snow; and all on a sudden he showed us 

the pleasant and  fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascony, all  green and  flourishing, though at a great 

distance, and we had some  rough way  to pass still. 



We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole  day and a night so fast that we could 

not travel; but he bid us be  easy; we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we  began  to descend 

every day, and to come more north than before; and  so,  depending upon our guide, we went on. 



It was about two hours before night when, our guide being something  before us, and not just in sight, out 

rushed three monstrous  wolves,  and after them a bear, from a hollow way adjoining to a  thick wood;  two of 

the wolves made at the guide, and had he been  far before us, he  would have been devoured before we could 

have  helped him; one of them  fastened upon his horse, and the other  attacked the man with such  violence, 

that he had not time, or  presence of mind enough, to draw  his pistol, but hallooed and cried  out to us most 

lustily.  My man  Friday being next me, I bade him  ride up and see what was the matter.  As soon as Friday 

came in  sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud  as the other, "O master!  O master!" but like a bold fellow, 

rode  directly up to the poor  man, and with his pistol shot the wolf in the  head that attacked  him. 



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It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for,  having been used to such creatures in his 

country, he had no fear  upon him, but went close up to him and shot him; whereas, any other  of us would 

have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps  either  missed the wolf or endangered shooting the man. 



But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and,  indeed, it alarmed all our company, when, with 

the noise of  Friday's  pistol, we heard on both sides the most dismal howling of  wolves; and  the noise, 

redoubled by the echo of the mountains,  appeared to us as  if there had been a prodigious number of them;  and 

perhaps there was  not such a few as that we had no cause of  apprehension: however, as  Friday had killed this 

wolf, the other  that had fastened upon the  horse left him immediately, and fled,  without doing him any 

damage,  having happily fastened upon his  head, where the bosses of the bridle  had stuck in his teeth.  But  the 

man was most hurt; for the raging  creature had bit him twice,  once in the arm, and the other time a  little 

above his knee; and  though he had made some defence, he was  just tumbling down by the  disorder of his 

horse, when Friday came up  and shot the wolf. 



It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all  mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the 

way, which was very  difficult, would give us leave, to see what was the matter.  As  soon  as we came clear of 

the trees, which blinded us before, we saw  clearly  what had been the case, and how Friday had disengaged 

the  poor guide,  though we did not presently discern what kind of  creature it was he  had killed. 



              CHAPTER XX - FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY  AND A BEAR 



BUT never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising  manner as that which followed between 

Friday and the bear, which  gave  us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him,  the  greatest 

diversion imaginable.  As the bear is a heavy, clumsy  creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is 

swift and  light, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are the  rule of his actions; first, as to men, 

who are not his proper prey  (he does not usually attempt them, except they first attack him,  unless he be 

excessively hungry, which it is probable might now be  the case, the ground being covered with snow), if you 

do not meddle  with him, he will not meddle with you; but then you must take care  to  be very civil to him, and 

give him the road, for he is a very  nice  gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a prince;  nay, if 

you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way  and keep  going on; for sometimes if you stop, and 

stand still, and  look  steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you  throw or  toss anything at him, 

though it were but a bit of stick as  big as your  finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all other  business 

aside to  pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in  point of honour -  that is his first quality: the next is, 

if he be  once affronted, he  will never leave you, night or day, till he has  his revenge, but  follows at a good 

round rate till he overtakes  you. 



My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him  he was helping him off his horse, for 

the man was both hurt and  frightened, when on a sudden we espied the bear come out of the  wood;  and a 

monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I  saw.  We  were all a little surprised when we saw him; but 

when  Friday saw him,  it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's  countenance.  "O!  O! O!" says Friday, 

three times, pointing to him;  "O master, you give  me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me  makee you 

good laugh." 



I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased.  "You fool,"  says I, "he will eat you up." - "Eatee me up! 

eatee me up!" says  Friday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me makee you good  laugh;  you all stay here, 

me show you good laugh."  So down he  sits, and gets  off his boots in a moment, and puts on a pair of  pumps 

(as we call the  flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his  pocket), gives my other  servant his horse, and 

with his gun away he  flew, swift like the wind. 



The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody,  till Friday coming pretty near, calls to 



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him, as if the bear could  understand him.  "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with  you."  We 

followed at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony  side of the mountains, we were entered a vast 

forest, where the  country was plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it  scattered here and there. 

Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of  the bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone, and 

threw it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more  harm than if he had thrown it against a 

wall; but it answered  Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it  purely  to make the bear 

follow him, and show us some laugh as he  called it.  As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he  turns 

about and  comes after him, taking very long strides, and  shuffling on at a  strange rate, so as would have put a 

horse to a  middling gallop; away  reins Friday, and takes his course as if he  ran towards us for help;  so we all 

resolved to fire at once upon   the bear, and deliver my man;  though I was angry at him for  bringing the bear 

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 then ran away; and I  called out, "You dog! is  this your making us laugh?  Come 

away, and  take your horse, that we  may shoot the creature."  He heard me, and  cried out, "No shoot, no  shoot; 

stand still, and you get much laugh:"  and as the nimble  creature ran two feet for the bear's one, he turned  on a 

sudden on  one side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his  purpose, he  beckoned to us to follow; and 

doubling his pace, he got  nimbly up  the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five  or six  yards 

from the bottom of the tree.  The bear soon came to the  tree,  and we followed at a distance: the first thing he 

did he stopped  at  the gun, smelt at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the  tree, climbing like a cat, 

though so monstrous heavy.      I was amazed  at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life 

see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we  all rode near to him. 



When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end  of a large branch, and the bear got about 

half-way to him.  As soon  as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was  weaker, "Ha!" says he 

to us, "now you see me teachee the bear  dance:"  so he began jumping and shaking the bough, at which the 

bear began to  totter, but stood still, and began to look behind  him, to see how he  should get back; then, 

indeed, we did laugh  heartily.  But Friday had  not done with him by a great deal; when  seeing him stand still, 

he  called out to him again, as if he had  supposed the bear could speak  English, "What, you come no farther? 

pray you come farther;" so he  left jumping and shaking the tree;  and the bear, just as if he  understood what he 

said, did come a  little farther; then he began  jumping again, and the bear stopped  again.  We thought now was 

a good  time to knock him in the head,  and called to Friday to stand still and  we should shoot the bear:  but he 

cried out earnestly, "Oh, pray!  Oh,  pray! no shoot, me  shoot by and then:" he would have said by-and-by. 

However, to  shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear  stood so  ticklish, that we had laughing 

enough, but still could not  imagine  what the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended  upon  shaking 

the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for  that too; for he would not go out far enough to be 

thrown down, but  clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could  not  imagine what would be 

the end of it, and what the jest would be  at  last.  But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the  bear 

cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to  come  any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, 

"you no come farther,  me go;  you no come to me, me come to you;" and upon this he went  out to the  smaller 

end, where it would bend with his weight, and  gently let  himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he 

came  near enough to  jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun,  took it up, and  stood still.  "Well," 

said I to him, "Friday, what  will you do now?  Why don't you shoot him?"  "No shoot," says  Friday, "no yet; 

me shoot  now, me no kill; me stay, give you one  more laugh:" and, indeed, so he  did; for when the bear saw 

his  enemy gone, he came back from the  bough, where he stood, but did it  very cautiously, looking behind 

him  every step, and coming backward  till he got into the body of the tree,  then, with the same hinder  end 

foremost, he came down the tree,  grasping it with his claws,  and moving one foot at a time, very  leisurely.  At 

this juncture,  and just before he could set his hind  foot on the ground, Friday  stepped up close to him, clapped 

the muzzle  of his piece into his  ear, and shot him dead.  Then the rogue turned  about to see if we  did not 

laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by  our looks, he  began to laugh very loud.  "So we kill bear in my 

country," says  Friday.  "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have no  guns." -  "No," says he, "no gun, but 

shoot great much long arrow."  This was  a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place,  and our 

guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the  howling of  wolves ran much in my head; and, 



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indeed, except the noise I  once  heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something  already, I never 

heard anything that filled me with so much horror. 



These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as  Friday would have had us, we should 

certainly have taken the skin  of  this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had  near  three 

leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left  him, and  went forward on our journey. 



The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and  dangerous as on the mountains; and the 

ravenous creatures, as we  heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country,  pressed by 

hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal of  mischief in the villages, where they surprised the 

country people,  killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too.  We had one dangerous 

place to pass, and our guide told us if there  were more wolves in the country we should find them there; and 

this  was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long,  narrow defile, or lane, which we 

were to pass to get through the  wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to  lodge.  It was 

within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the  wood, and a  little after sunset when we came into the 

plain: we met  with nothing  in the first wood, except that in a little plain  within the wood,  which was not 

above two furlongs over, we saw five  great wolves cross  the road, full speed, one after another, as if  they had 

been in chase  of some prey, and had it in view; they took    no notice of us, and were  gone out of sight in a few 

moments.  Upon  this, our guide, who, by the  way, was but a fainthearted fellow,  bid us keep in a ready 

posture,  for he believed there were more  wolves a-coming.  We kept our arms  ready, and our eyes about us; 

but we saw no more wolves till we came      through that wood, which was  near half a league, and entered the 

plain.  As soon as we came into  the plain, we had occasion enough to  look about us.  The first  object we met 

with was a dead horse; that is  to say, a poor horse  which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen  of them at 

work,  we could not say eating him, but picking his bones     rather; for they  had eaten up all the flesh before.  We 

did not think  fit to disturb  them at their feast, neither did they take much notice  of us.  Friday would have let 

fly at them, but I would not suffer him  by  any means; for I found we were like to have more business upon 

our  hands than we were aware of.  We had not gone half over the plain  when we began to hear the wolves 

howl in the wood on our left in a  frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming  on 

directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line,  as  regularly as an army drawn up by 

experienced officers.  I scarce  knew  in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in  a close 

line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but that  we might not  have too much interval, I ordered 

that only every  other man should  fire, and that the others, who had not fired,  should stand ready to  give them 

a second volley immediately, if  they continued to advance  upon us; and then that those that had  fired at first 

should not  pretend to load their fusees again, but  stand ready, every one with a  pistol, for we were all armed 

with a  fusee and a pair of pistols each  man; so we were, by this method,  able to fire six volleys, half of us  at a 

time; however, at present  we had no necessity; for upon firing  the first volley, the enemy  made a full stop, 

being terrified as well  with the noise as with  the fire.  Four of them being shot in the head,  dropped; several 

others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we  could see by the  snow.  I found they stopped, but did not 

immediately  retreat;  whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the fiercest  creatures were terrified at 

the voice of a man, I caused all the  company to halloo as loud as they could; and I found the notion not 

altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retire and  turn  about.  I then ordered a second volley to 

be fired in their  rear,  which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the  woods.  This  gave us leisure to 

charge our pieces again; and that  we might lose no  time, we kept going; but we had but little more      than 

loaded our  fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we  heard a terrible noise  in the same wood on our 

left, only that it  was farther onward, the  same way we were to go. 



The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which  made it worse on our side; but the noise 

increasing, we could  easily  perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those  hellish  creatures; and on a 

sudden we perceived three troops of  wolves, one on  our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so  that we 

seemed to be  surrounded with them: however, as they did not  fall upon us, we kept  our way forward, as fast 

as we could make our  horses go, which, the  way being very rough, was only a good hard  trot.  In this manner, 



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we  came in view of the entrance of a wood,  through which we were to pass,  at the farther side of the plain; 

but we were greatly surprised, when  coming nearer the lane or pass,  we saw a confused number of wolves 

standing just at the entrance.   On a sudden, at another opening of the  wood, we heard the noise of  a gun, and 

looking that way, out rushed a  horse, with a saddle and  a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and  sixteen or 

seventeen  wolves after him, full speed: the horse had the  advantage of them;  but as we supposed that he could 

not hold it at  that rate, we  doubted not but they would get up with him at last: no  question but  they did. 



But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the  entrance where the horse came out, we found the 

carcasses of  another  horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures;  and one of  the men was no 

doubt the same whom we heard fire the  gun, for there  lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man,  his 

head and the  upper part of his body was eaten up.  This filled  us with horror, and  we knew not what course to 

take; but the  creatures resolved us soon,     for they gathered about us presently,  in hopes of prey; and I verily 

believe there were three hundred of  them.  It happened, very much to  our advantage, that at the  entrance into 

the wood, but a little way  from it, there lay some  large timber-trees, which had been cut down  the summer 

before, and  I suppose lay there for carriage.  I drew my  little troop in among  those trees, and placing ourselves 

in a line  behind one long tree,  I advised them all to alight, and keeping that  tree before us for a  breastwork, to 

stand in a triangle, or three  fronts, enclosing our  horses in the centre.  We did so, and it was  well we did; for 

never  was a more furious charge than the creatures  made upon us in this  place.  They came on with a growling 

kind of  noise, and mounted the  piece of timber, which, as I said, was our  breastwork, as if they  were only 

rushing upon their prey; and this  fury of theirs, it  seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing  our 

horses behind  us.  I ordered our men to fire as before, every  other man; and they  took their aim so sure that 

they killed several of  the wolves at  the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a  continual  firing, for 

they came on like devils, those behind pushing  on those  before. 



When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought they  stopped a little, and I hoped they would 

have gone off, but it was  but a 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 eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yet 

they came  on again.  I was loth to spend our shot too hastily; so I  called my  servant, not my man Friday, for 

he was better employed,  for, with the  greatest dexterity imaginable, he had charged my  fusee and his own 

while we were engaged - but, as I said, I called  my other man, and  giving him a horn of powder, I had him 

lay a  train all along the piece  of timber, and let it be a large train.  He did so, and had but just  time to get 

away, when the wolves came  up to it, and some got upon it,  when I, snapping an unchanged  pistol close to 

the powder, set it on  fire; those that were upon  the timber were scorched with it, and six  or seven of them fell; 

or  rather jumped in among us with the force and  fright of the fire; we  despatched these in an instant, and the 

rest  were so frightened  with the light, which the night - for it was now  very near dark -  made more terrible 

that they drew back a little; upon  which I  ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and  after  that 

we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we        sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones 

that we found  struggling on the ground, and fell to cutting them with our swords,  which answered our 

expectation, for the crying and howling they  made  was better understood by their fellows; so that they all fled 

and left  us. 



We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and had it  been daylight we had killed many more. 

The field of battle being  thus cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league  to go.  We heard 

the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods  as  we went several times, and sometimes we fancied we 

saw some of  them;  but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain.  In  about an hour  more we came to 

the town where we were to lodge,  which we found in a  terrible fright and all in arms; for, it seems,  the night 

before the  wolves and some bears had broken into the  village, and put them in  such terror that they were 

obliged to keep  guard night and day, but  especially in the night, to preserve their  cattle, and indeed their 

people. 



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The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled so  much with the rankling of his two wounds, 

that he could go no  farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide here, and go to  Toulouse, where we found 

a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant  country, and no snow, no wolves, nor anything like them; but when  we 

told our story at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but what  was  ordinary in the great forest at the foot of 

the mountains,  especially  when the snow lay on the ground; but they inquired much  what kind of  guide we 

had got who would venture to bring us that  way in such a  severe season, and told us it was surprising we were 

not all devoured.  When we told them how we placed ourselves and  the horses in the  middle, they blamed us 

exceedingly, and told us  it was fifty to one  but we had been all destroyed, for it was the  sight of the horses 

which made the wolves so furious, seeing their  prey, and that at other  times they are really afraid of a gun; 

but  being excessively 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 continual  fire, and at last by the stratagem  of the train of 

powder, mastered  them, it had been great odds but  that we had been torn to pieces;  whereas, had we been 

content to  have sat still on horseback, and fired  as horsemen, they would not  have taken the horses so much 

for their  own, when men were on their  backs, as otherwise; and withal, they told  us that at last, if we  had 

stood altogether, and left our horses, they  would have been so  eager to have devoured them, that we might 

have  come off safe,  especially having our firearms in our hands, being so  many in  number.  For my part,  I was 

never so sensible of danger in my  life; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open- 

mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat  to,  I gave myself over for lost; and, as it 

was, I believe I shall  never  care to cross those mountains again: I think I would much  rather go a  thousand 

leagues by sea, though I was sure to meet with  a storm once  a-week. 



I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through  France - nothing but what other travellers 

have given an account of  with much more advantage than I can.  I travelled from Toulouse to  Paris, and 

without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed              safe at Dover the 14th of January, after having had 

a severe cold  season to travel in. 



I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little  time all my new-discovered estate safe about 

me, the bills of  exchange which I brought with me having been 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 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,  in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman. 



And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the  Brazils, I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, 

having offered it  to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in  the  Brazils, they accepted 

the offer, and remitted thirty-three  thousand  pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to  pay for 

it. 



In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they  sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, 

who sent me the bills  of  exchange for thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of eight  for the  estate, 

reserving the payment of one hundred moidores a  year to him  (the old man) during his life, and fifty 

moidores  afterwards to his  son for his life, which I had promised them, and  which the plantation  was to make 

good as a rent-charge.  And thus I  have given the first  part of a life of fortune and adventure - a  life of 

Providence's  chequer-work, and of a variety which the world  will seldom be able to  show the like of; 

beginning foolishly, but  closing much more happily  than any part of it ever gave me leave so  much as to hope 

for. 



Any one would think that in this state of complicated good fortune  I was past running any more hazards - 

and so, indeed, I had been,  if  other circumstances had concurred; but I was inured to a  wandering  life, had no 

family, nor many relations; nor, however  rich, had I  contracted fresh acquaintance; and though I had sold my 



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estate in the  Brazils, yet I could not keep that country out of my  head, and had a  great mind to be upon the 

wing again; especially I  could not resist  the strong inclination I had to see my island, and  to know if the poor 

Spaniards were in being there.  My true friend,  the widow, earnestly  dissuaded me from it, and so far 

prevailed  with me, that for almost  seven years she prevented my running  abroad, during which time I took 

my two nephews, the children of  one of my brothers, into my care; the  eldest, having something of  his own, I 

bred up as a gentleman, and  gave him a settlement of  some addition to his estate after my decease.  The other I 

placed  with the captain of a ship; and after five years,  finding him a  sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, 

I put him  into a good  ship, and sent him to sea; and this young fellow  afterwards drew me  in, as old as I was, 

to further adventures myself. 



In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all,  I married, and that not either to my 

disadvantage or  dissatisfaction,  and had three children, two sons and one daughter;  but my wife dying,  and 

my nephew coming home with good success from  a voyage to Spain, my  inclination to go abroad, and his 

importunity, prevailed, and engaged  me to go in his ship as a  private trader to the East Indies; this was  in the 

year 1694. 



In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my  successors the Spaniards, had the old story of 

their lives and of  the  villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor  Spaniards,  how they afterwards 

agreed, disagreed, united,  separated, and how at  last the Spaniards were obliged to use  violence with them; 

how they  were subjected to the Spaniards, how  honestly the Spaniards used them  - a history, if it were 

entered  into, as full of variety and wonderful  accidents as my own part -  particularly, also, as to their battles 

with the Caribbeans, who  landed several times upon the island, and as  to the improvement  they made upon 

the island itself, and how five of  them made an  attempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven men  and 

five  women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about twenty  young  children on the island. 



Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all     necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, 

shot, clothes,  tools, and two workmen, which I had brought from England with me,  viz. a carpenter and a 

smith. 



Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved to  myself the property of the whole, but gave 

them such parts  respectively as they agreed on; and having settled all things with  them, and engaged them not 

to leave the place, I left them there. 



From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark,  which I bought there, with more people to 

the island; and in it,  besides other supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found  proper for service, or 

for wives to such as would take them.  As to  the Englishmen, I promised to send them some women from 

England,  with  a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply themselves to  planting - which I afterwards 

could not perform.  The fellows  proved  very honest and diligent after they were mastered and had          their 

properties set apart for them.  I sent them, also, from the  Brazils,  five cows, three of them being big with calf, 

some sheep,    and some  hogs, which when I came again were considerably increased. 



But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees  came and invaded them, and ruined their 

plantations, and how they  fought with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated,  and  one of them 

killed; but at last, a storm destroying their  enemies'  canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, 

and renewed  and recovered the possession of their plantation, and  still lived upon  the island. 



All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new  adventures of my own, for ten years more, 

I shall give a farther  account of in the Second Part of my Story. 



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