The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, Volume 1
by Daniel Defoe · English · Gutenberg #11239 · 658,760 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, Volume 1
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, Volume 1
Author: Daniel Defoe
Release date: February 1, 2004 [eBook #11239]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11239
Credits: Produced by Internet Archive; University of Florida, Charlie Kirschner
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE OF YORK, MARINER, VOLUME 1 ***
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
OF YORK, MARINER.
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
HIS TRAVELS ROUND THREE PARTS OF THE GLOBE.
_WRITTEN BY HIMSELF_.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL.I.
BY C. WHITTINGHAM;
FOR J. CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET; J. BOOKER, NEW BOND
STREET; SHARPS AND HAILES, MUSEUM, PICCADILLY; AND
GALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER, PATERNOSTER ROW; LONDON.
1812.
THE LIFE OF
_DANIEL DE FOE_.
Daniel De Foe was descended from a respectable family in the county of
Northampton, and born in London, about the year 1663. His father, James
Foe, was a butcher, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and a
protestant dissenter. Why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _De_
to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any period
of his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. The
political scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy this
lack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the
_amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not be
taken for an Englishman; though this idea could have had no other
foundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of his
zeal for King William, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his
"Trueborn Englishman."
After receiving a good education at an academy at Newington, young De
Foe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his career
as an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentiment
in favour of the Turks, who were at that time laying siege to Vienna.
This production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, was
very little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success with
his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boasting
of the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to liberty
and protestanism," by joining the ill-advised insurrection under the
Duke of Monmouth, in the west. On the failure of that unfortunate
enterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is not
improbable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of London,
and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where the
rebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means of
preventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction.
With the professions of a writer and a soldier, Mr. De Foe, in the year
1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, in
Cornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near Tilbury
Fort, in Essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in the
hilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in the
calculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes proved
unsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors,
not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severity
of the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. It is
much to his credit, however, that after having been freed from his debts
by composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from King
William's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both the
principal and interest of their claims. This is such an example of
honesty as it would be unjust to De Foe and to the world to conceal. The
amount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as he
afterwards feelingly mentions to Lord Haversham, who had reproached him
with covetousness; "With a numerous family, and no helps but my own
industry, I have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced
my debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than
five thousand pounds."
At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe published a satire in
verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "Trueborn
Englishman." Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were
continually abusing King William and some of his friends as
_foreigners_, by showing that the present race of Englishmen was a mixed
and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native
purity of blood. The satire was in many parts very severe; and though it
gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public
attention. The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this
production, wherein he endeavours to account for--
"What makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
Why civil fends disturb the nation more,
Than all our bloody wars had done before:
Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace:
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they, who would be in them, would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in."
It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could have no pretensions
to the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous
and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in
general excellent. The Trueborn Englishman concludes thus:
Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And openly disown the vile degenerate race.
For fame of families is all a cheat;
'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT.
For this defence of foreigners De Foe was amply rewarded by King
William, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponents
denominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; an
office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a
strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which
allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convinced
they were injurious to his country. De Foe now retired to Newington with
his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his
royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of
sorrow which probably embittered his future life.
He had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious
controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which
ensued on the accession of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity of
gratifying his favourite passion. He therefore published a tract,
entitled "The shortest Way with the Dissenters, or Proposals for the
Establishment of the Church," which contained an ironical recommendation
of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons,
particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. The high
church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their
influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation
published in the Gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1].
When De Foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were
about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and
bookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, as
he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather
than that others should be ruined for his mistakes." In July, 1703, he
was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to
stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. He
underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and
it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with
unreasonable severity. So far was he from being ashamed of his fate
himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding
to his accusers:
Tell them, the men that plac'd him here
Are scandals to the times;
Are at a loss to find his guilt,
And can't commit his crimes.
Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dunciad, (probably
from no other reason than party difference) characterizes him in the
following line:
Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe.
This is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so
frequently occur in the Dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the
author than on the parties traduced. De Foe lay friendless and
distressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of
deliverance, till Sir Robert Harley, who approved of his principles, and
foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to
many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the Queen, and at
length procured his release. The treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent a
considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his
fine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude and fidelity are
inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that
prompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when
Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was
persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered,
by violence.
The talents and perseverance of De Foe began now to be properly
estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent by
Lord Godolphin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far from
being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. His
knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and, above
all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility in promoting
the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history in
1709, with two dedications, one to the Queen, and another to the Duke of
Queensbury. Soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal writings,
rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once more retired
to Newington, in hopes of spending the remainder of his days in peace.
His pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he began to
compose works of a different kind.--The year 1715 may therefore be
regarded as the period of De Foe's political life. Faction henceforth
found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminate
their suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods.
In 1715 De Foe published the "Family Instructor;" a work inculcating the
domestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and
displaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society.
"Religious Courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "Family
Instructor," is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and
strongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety and private
devotion for which the dissenters have generally been distinguished. The
most celebrated of all his works, "The Life and Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe," appeared in 1719. This work has passed through numerous
editions, and been translated into almost all modern languages. The
great invention which is displayed in it, the variety of incidents and
circumstances which it contains, related in the most easy and natural
manner, together with the excellency of the moral and religious
reflections, render it a performance of very superior and uncommon
merit, and one of the most interesting works that ever appeared. It is
strongly recommended by Rosseau as a book admirably calculated to
promote the purposes of natural education; and Dr. Blair says, "No
fiction, in any language, was ever better supported than the Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe. While it is carried on with that appearance of truth
and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all
readers, it suggests, at the same time, very useful instruction; by
showing how much the native powers of man may be exerted for
surmounting the difficulties of any external situation." It has been
pretended, that De Foe surreptitiously appropriated the papers of
Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch mariner, who lived four years alone on the
island of Juan Fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had before
appeared in the voyage of Captain Woodes Rogers. But this charge, though
repeatedly and confidently brought, appears to be totally destitute of
any foundation. De Foe probably took some general hints for his work
from the story of Selkirk, but there exists no proof whatever, nor is it
reasonable to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or memoirs,
which had been published seven years before the appearance of Robinson
Crusoe. As a farther proof of De Foe's innocence, Captain Rogers'
Account of Selkirk may be produced, in which it is said that the latter
had neither preserved pen, ink, or paper, and had, in a great measure,
lost his language; consequently De Foe could not have received any
written assistance, and we have only the assertion of his enemies to
prove that he had any verbal.
The great success of Robinson Crusoe induced its author to write a
number of other lives and adventures, some of which were popular in
their times, though at present nearly forgotten. One of his latest
publications was "A Tour through the Island of Great Britain," a
performance of very inferior merit; but De Foe was now the garrulous
old man, and his spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer)
"like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and sunk, blazed and
sunk, till it disappeared at length in total darkness." His laborious
and unfortunate life was finished on the 26th of April, 1731, in' the
parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate.
Daniel De Foe possessed very extraordinary talents; as a commercial
writer, he is fairly entitled to stand in the foremost rank among his
contemporaries, whatever may be their performances or their fame. His
distinguishing characteristics are originality, spirit, and a profound
knowledge of his subject, and in these particulars he has seldom been
surpassed. As the author of Robinson Crusoe he has a claim, not only to
the admiration, but to the gratitude of his countrymen; and so long as
we have a regard for supereminent merit, and take an interest in the
welfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will not cease to
exist. But the opinion of the learned and ingenious Dr. Beattie will be
the best eulogium that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance:
"Robinson Crusoe," says the Doctor, "must be allowed, by the most rigid
moralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, riot only with
pleasure, but also with profit. It breathes throughout a spirit of
piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importance
of the mechanic arts, which they, who know not what it is to be without
them, are so apt to under-value; it fixes in the mind a lively idea of
the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of social
life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid;
and it shows how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may secure
independence, and open for one's self many sources of health and
amusement. I agree, therefore, with Rosseau, that it is one of the best
books that can be put into the hands of children."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _St. James's, January 10, 1702-5._ "Whereas Daniel De Foe,
alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious
pamphlet, entitled 'The shortest Way with the Dissenters:' he is a
middle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and
dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin,
grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in London, and for
many years was a hose-factor, in Freeman's Yard, in Cornhill, and now is
owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex;
whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe, to one of her Majesty's
Principal Secretaries of State, or any of her Majesty's Justices of
Peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of £50, which
her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery."
_London Gaz._ No. 3879.]
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who
settled first at Hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving
off his trade, lived afterwards at York; from whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the
usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, nay we call
ourselves, and write, our name Crusoe; and so my companions always
called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than
my father or mother did know what was become of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my head
began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my father, who was
very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as
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 propension 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 my 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 for 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 one thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all
other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable
consequences of being born to great things, and wish 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 just
standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty
nor riches.
He bid 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 one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean and
insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves
by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle
station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues 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
the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed
circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not
enraged with the passion of envy, or 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, not 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 been just 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, and I would 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, and
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, as 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 so hastily neither as my first heat of
resolution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time when I thought her
a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts were
so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should never settle to
any thing 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, and 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 that time 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 any such thing
so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such
thing after such a discourse as 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, as I have heard
afterwards, 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 was ever born; I can give no
consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in
the mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling
to business, and frequently expostulating 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 then going by sea to
London, in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the
common allurement of seafaring men, viz. that it should cost me nothing
for my passage, I consulted neither father or mother any more, not 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 first 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 gotten out
of the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves 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 wickedly leaving my father's
house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsel 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 been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and
the breach of my duty to God and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I had never been
upon before, went very high, though nothing like what I have seen many
times since; no, nor like 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 any
thing of the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up,
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought, in the trough or
hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; and in this agony of mind
I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God here to
spare my life 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 during the storm, and indeed
some time after; but the next day, as the wind was abated, and the sea
calmer, 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
I ever 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 a
little time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my
companion, who had indeed enticed me away, came to me and said, "Well;
Bob," clapping me on the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrant
you were frightened, wa'n't you, last night, when it blew but a cap-full
of wind?"--"A cap-full do you call it?" said I; "it was a terrible
storm."--"A storm, you fool you," replied 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; do you see what charming weather it is now?" To make
short this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sailors; the
punch was made, and I was made drunk with it; and in that one night's
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past
conduct, and all my resolutions for my 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 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 anchor, and here we
lay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. at south-west, for seven or
eight days, during which tune 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 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 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 top-masts, and make every thing 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 a-head,
and the cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to 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 say to
himself 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 reassume 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 but
of my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw; the
sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes:
when I could look about, I could see nothing but distress around us: two
ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board,
being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship which rid about a
mile a-head 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 her 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 that 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 in 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 known a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep
laden, and wallowed in the sea, 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 on purpose to see, cried
out, we had sprung a leak; another said, there was four foot water in
the hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very 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 not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun as
a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was so
surprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing had
happened. In a word, I was so surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. As
this was a time when every body had his own life to think of, nobody
minded me, or what was become of me; but another man stept 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.
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 as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a port,
so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had
rid it out just a-head 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 great 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 to 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 but 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 that moment
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 it, till, being past
the light-house 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, an emblem of 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 assurance 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
attending, and 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, 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 farther
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 for a 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; 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
with 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; told 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 know 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 go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best notions 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 every body 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; nor 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 a while, the
remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that abated,
the little notion I had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till
at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for
a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house,
that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising 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 call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship
myself as a sailor; whereby, though I might indeed have worked a little
harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learnt the duty and
office of a foremast-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, or learnt
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 unguided 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 fell 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; and who 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 any thing with me, I
should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and
perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this
captain, who was an honest and 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 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to
buy. This £40 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 I was successful in all my
adventures, and 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, learnt 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, and this filled me with those
aspiring thoughts which have 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 the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my 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 his 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 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left, and which I
lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into
terrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was this, viz. 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 canvass as our yards would
spread, or our masts carry to have got 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 rover 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 200 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; that 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 sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a
Spanish 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 a young Moresco 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 of Moresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, 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 particularly 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 long-boat of our
English ship 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; and 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 gibbed 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 particularly 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 over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had
ordered me to get ready three fuzees 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 ensign and pendants out, and every thing
to accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on board alone,
and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business that 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.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,
for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command; and 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; for any where, to get out of that
place, was my way.
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 of their kind, and three jars
with 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 bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a
hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and
a hammer, all 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, whom they call Muley, or Moley; so
I called him: "Moley," said I, "our patron's guns are on board the boat;
can you not get a little powder and shot? it may be we may kill 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 about 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 every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle,
which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took 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 catched 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 run 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
mistrust 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
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 the
canoes, and destroy us; where we could never once 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 toward
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 150 miles south of Sallee; quite beyond
the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king
thereabout, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at 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 come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,
or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river: I neither saw, or 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 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 frightened, and indeed so was I too; but we were
both more frightened 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 horrible 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
upon 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 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 or where to get
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, that made me love him
ever 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 to 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 run 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 flows but a little way up; so we filled
our jars, and feasted on the hare we 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 Verd 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, and 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 numbers of
tigers, lions, and 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
an 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 day-time 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 the 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 go on shore and kill him." Xury
looked frightened, and said, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth;" one
mouthful he meant: however, I said no more to the boy, but bad 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; 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 broke, fell down again, and then got up 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
dispatched 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.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate
very much, and going no oftener into 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, any where about the Cape de Verd, 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 stark naked. I was
once inclined to have gone off 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 run along the
shore by me a good way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Nury said was a lance,
and that they would throw them a great way with a good aim; so I 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
dry 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 was not for
venturing 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.
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
frightened, 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 seem to 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 I at first 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 sunk down into the water, but
rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he was 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 to the shore, 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, frightened 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 were for eating 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, making as if 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
suppose, 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
stark 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
Verd, and those the islands, called, from thence, Cape de Verd Islands.
However, they were at a great distance, and I could not well tell what I
had best to do; for if I should be taken with a gale of wind, I might
neither reach one nor the other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin, and
sat me down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out,
Master, master, a ship with a sail! and the foolish boy was frightened
out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships
sent to pursue us, when I knew we were gotten far enough out of their
reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the
ship, but what she was, viz. that it was a 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 me, by the help of their perspective glasses, and
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 ensign 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," continued 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, Seignior Inglese," (Mr. Englishman,) says he;
"I will carry you thither in charity, and these 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
offer to touch any thing I had: then he took every thing into his own
possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I might
have them, even so much as my three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me he
would buy it of me for the ship's use; and asked me what I would have
for it? I told him, he had been so generous to me in every thing, 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 not willing 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 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 now
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 every thing 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
bees-wax,--for I had 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 ingeino 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: endeavouring, in the mean time, 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 a letter of naturalization, 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 any thing else, for about two years.
However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so
that Ihe 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 had 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 coining 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 staid 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, near 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 here
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 for
but 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."
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 left my money, and a
procuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired me.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my adventures;
my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portuguese captain 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 at London, who represented it effectually to her:
whereupon she not only delivered the money, but, out of her own pocket,
sent the Portuguese captain a very handsome present for his humanity and
charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods,
such as the captain had wrote for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon,
and he brought them all safe to me at the Brazils: among which, 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, iron work, and utensils,
necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I was surprised
with the joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had laid out the
five pounds, which my friend had sent him as 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: but my goods being all English manufactures, 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 ail 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
adversity, so was it 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 hundred weight, were well
cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now,
increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full 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 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
about, 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 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 gulph 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 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 an
acquaintance and friendship among my 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 on the coast for trifles--such
as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the
like--not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c. 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 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 the assientos, or permission of the kings
of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed from the public; so that few
Negroes were bought, and those excessive 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 the 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 an 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 a settlement and 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 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's
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 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 again, the 1st of
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 interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six guns,
and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself; we had 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 odd
trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissars, 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 they came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which,
it seems, was the manner of their course in those days, we had very good
weather, only excessive hot all the way upon our own coast, till we came
to the height of Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping farther 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 7 degrees 22 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
ever 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 died of the calenture, and one man and a 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 11
degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude
difference, west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was got
upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river
Amazons, toward that of the river Oroonoque, 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, add 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 to sea, to avoid the in-draft 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 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 12
degrees 18 minutes, a second storm came upon us, which carried us away
with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very 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,
but 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; and
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 in pieces, unless the wind, by a kind of miracle,
should immediately turn about. In a word, we sat looking upon one
another, and expecting death every moment, and every man acting
accordingly, as 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 room to debate, for we
fancied 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, they got her flung over the ship's
side; and getting all into her, let her go, and committed ourselves,
being eleven in number, to God's mercy, and the wild sea: for though the
storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful 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 any thing 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 nearer to 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 happen into 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 of this appeared; and 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_. In a word, 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 not time hardly 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 sunk
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw my 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 main land 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 wave, 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
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 water went from me, and then took to my
heels, and ran with what strength I had farther 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 forwards 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 a 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 again be covered 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 the 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 main land; 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 were, 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 grave: and I did not wonder now at
the custom, viz. that 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, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance; making a
thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon
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 eyes to the stranded vessel--when the breach and froth of the
sea being so big I could hardly see it, it lay so far off--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 a 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 any thing 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 provision; 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, seeing at
night they always come abroad for their prey.
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, as that if I should fall
asleep, 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 the most
refreshed with it that I think I ever was on such an occasion.
When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated,
so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that 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
entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as I now was. This forced
tears from 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 a rope, which I wondered I did not
see at first, hang down by the fore-chains so low, as that with great
difficulty, I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got 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 eat 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 top-mast or two in the
ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and flung as many 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 fast together at both
ends, as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and 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 the carpenter's saw I cut a
spare top-mast 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;
these I filled with provisions, viz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses,
five pieces of dried goats' flesh, (which we lived much upon,) and a
little remainder of European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls
which we had 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 chests, nor any room for them. While I was doing
this, I found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the
mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on
shore, upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were only
linen, and open-knee'd, I swam on board in them, and my stockings.
However, this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I found
enough, but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had other
things which my eye was more upon; as, first, tools to work with on
shore and it was after long searching that I found the carpenter's
chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more
valuable than a ship-lading of gold would have been at that time. I got
it down to my raft, even 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 cap-full of wind would have overset
all my navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1st, A smooth, calm sea: 2dly, The tide
rising, and setting in to the shore: 3dly, 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; and 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 get into 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 that end that was afloat, and so 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 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 or 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 ship 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, as 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 up to the top, I saw
my 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, but from all the parts of the wood there arose an
innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming,
and crying, 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 a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but 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 barricadoed myself round with the chests
and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a 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 got every thing
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 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 a 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 carpenter's stores, I found two or three bags of
nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets; and,
above all, that most useful thing called a grind-stone. All these I
secured together, with several things belonging to the gunner;
particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets,
seven muskets, and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of
powder more; a large bag-full 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-top sail, 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 apprehensions, 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 to 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 of it, and ate it, and looked (as
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 every thing 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, as well to fetch
all those things from the ship, as to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up, 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 every thing 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 canvass, 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 canvass only.
But that which comforted me still more, 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, and three large
runlets of rum or spirits, and 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 that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in
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, and
cutting the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I got two
cables and a hawser on shore, with all the iron-work I could get; and
having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing
I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those heavy goods;
and came away; but my good luck began now to leave me; for this raft was
so unwieldy, and so overladen, that after I was entered the little cove,
where I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it 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 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 ashore, 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, as that nothing 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 scissars 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 saving." However, upon
second thoughts, I took it away; and wrapping all this in a piece of
canvass, I began to think of making another raft; but while I was
preparing this, I found the sky over-cast, and the wind began to rise,
and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It
presently occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft
with the wind off shore; and that it was my business to be gone before
the tide of flood began, or 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 was got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all my wealth
about me very secure. It blew very hard all that 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 this satisfactory
reflection, viz. that I had lost no time, nor abated no diligence, to
get every thing out of her that could be useful to me, and that, indeed,
there was little left in her that I was able to bring away, if I had had
more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any thing 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.
I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, particularly
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 be
proper for me: 1st, Health and fresh water, I just now mentioned: 2dly,
Shelter from the heat of the sun: 3dly, Security from ravenous
creatures, whether men or beasts: 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 for 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 side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in,
like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave,
or way into the rock, at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved 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 sea
side. 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 about 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 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, viz. 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 every thing 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.
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 an 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 a thought, which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning
itself: O my powder! My very heart sunk within me when I thought, that
at one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence
only, but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended. I was
nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder took
fire, I had never 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 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 240 lb. 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 at least once
every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if I could
kill any thing 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 upon 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; but 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 preserved 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, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, I
shall give a full account of in its proper place: but I must first give
some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which,
it may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away 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 its creatures, and render them so
absolutely miserable; so abandoned without help, so entirely depressed,
that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, and
to reprove me: and particularly, one day, walking with my gun in my
hand, by the sea side, 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 into
the boat? Where are the ten? Why were not they 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 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 any thing, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or
any manner of covering?" and that now I had all these to a 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 should provide for the accidents
that might happen, and for the time that was to come, not only after my
ammunition should be spent, but even after my health or 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 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 just over my head: for I reckoned myself,
by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 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 from the working
days: but, to prevent this, I cut it 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, viz. "I came on shore here on the 30th of
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.
But it happened, 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 me,
which I found, some time after, in rummaging the chests; 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 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 for 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, this of ink was one; as also
a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,
pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned to want that without 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, yet it made driving these posts or
piles very laborious and tedious work. But what need I have been
concerned at the tediousness of any thing 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 circumstance 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 like to
have but few heirs,) as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon
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.
I am singled out and separated,
as it were, from all the
world, to be miserable.
I am divided from mankind,
a solitaire; one banished
from human society.
I have no clothes to cover
me.
I am without any defence,
or means to resist any violence
of man or beast.
I have no soul to speak to,
or relieve me.
GOOD.
But I am alive; and not
drowned, as all my ship's company
were.
But I am singled out too
from all the ship's crew, to be
spared from death; and he
that miraculously save me
from death, can deliver me
from this condition.
But I am not starved, and
perishing in a barren place,
affording no sustenance.
But I am in a hot climate,
where, if I had clothes, I could
hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an island
where I see no wild beast to
hurt me, as I saw on the coast
of Africa: and what if I had
been shipwrecked there?
But God wonderfully sent
the ship in near enough to the
shore, that I have got out so
many necessary things as will
either supply my wants, or
enable me to supply myself,
even as long as I live.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was 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 began to apply myself to accommodate 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 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 when I found I was pretty safe as to the 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 in the
outside of my pale or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were, a back-way to my
tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I 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 original of the mathematics, so by stating, and
squaring every thing 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, 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 had brought it to be
as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by
this method I could make but one board of a whole tree; but this I had
no remedy for but patience, any more than I had for a 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.
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 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 iron-work on; and, in a word, to separate every thing at large in
their places, that I might easily come 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 seen, it looked like a general magazine of
all necessary things; and I had every thing 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 much discomposure of mind; and my journal would, too,
have been full of many dull things: for example, I must have said
thus--"_Sept_. 30th. After I had got to shore, and had escaped drowning,
instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having first
vomited, with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten 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, 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 that, at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself with
the hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till I was almost blind,
lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my
misery by my folly.
But, having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settled
my household-stuff 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.
* * * * *
THE JOURNAL.
_September_ 30th, 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 that 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; that I should either 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
sit upright, and not broken in 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 staid 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.
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 these 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 semi-circle 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 see
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 I 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 ate what I had
to live on; and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather
being excessive hot; and then, in the evening, to work again. The
working part of this day and the next was 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
any one else.
_Nov. 5._ This day went abroad with my gun and dog, and killed a wild
cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing: of every
creature that I killed I took off the skins, and preserved them. Coming
back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowl which I did not
understand: but was surprised, and almost frightened, with two or three
seals; which, while I was gazing at them (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.
_Nov. 7._ Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, 8th, 9th,
10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was Sunday, according to my
reckoning) 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 as 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 farther convenience.
_Note._ Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. a
pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow, or basket; so I desisted from my
work, and began to consider how to supply these wants, and make me some
tools. As for a pick-axe, 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, from
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
broad 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 a-making.
I was still deficient: for I wanted a basket, or a wheel-barrow. 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 the wheel-barrow, 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 iron gudgeons for the spindle or axis of
the wheel to run in; so I gave it over: and, 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 for the brick-layers. 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 wheel-barrow, took me up
no less than four days; I mean, always excepting my morning walk with my
gun, which I seldom omitted, 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 a 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 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 and one side: so much, that, in short, it frightened
me, and not without reason too; for if I had been under it, I should
never have wanted a grave-digger. Upon this disaster, I had 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 board
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
my house.
_Dec. 17._ From this day to the 30th, I placed shelves, and knocked up
nails on the posts, to hang every thing up that could be hung up: and
now I began to be in some order within doors.
_Dec. 20._ I carried every thing 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 catched it,
and led it home in a string: when I had it 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 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 vallies which lay towards the centre of the island, I found
there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy, and hard to come at;
however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them
down. 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 3d of January to the 14th of April, working, finishing,
and perfecting this wall; though it was no more than about 25 yards in
length, being a half-circle, from one place in the rock to another
place, about twelve 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 every thing 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 persuaded myself that if any people
were to come on shore there they would not perceive any thing 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, who 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 all 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, as to 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 to the capacity of making one
by them, though I spent many weeks about it: I could neither put in the
heads, nor 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 candle; so that as soon as it was dark, which was generally by
seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remember the lump of
bees-wax 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 in 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. What little
remainder of corn had been in the bag was all devoured with the rats,
and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing 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 rain just now mentioned, that I threw
this stuff away; taking no notice of any thing, and not so much as
remembering that I had thrown any thing there: when about a month after,
I saw some few stalks of something green, shooting out of the ground,
which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised,
and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw 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 any thing that had befallen me,
otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God;
without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these things,
or his order in governing events in the world. But after I saw barley
grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn, and
especially as I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely;
and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously caused this grain to
grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely
for my sustenance, on that wild miserable place.
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 over
all that part of the island where I had been before, searching in every
corner, and under every rock, for more of it; but I could not find any.
At last it occurred to my thoughts, that I had shook out a bag of
chicken's-meat 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, as 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 dropt 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 any where else, at that time, it would have 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 show afterwards, in its order; for I lost
all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; as
I sowed 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 whose use was of the
same kind, or to the same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or rather
food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, though I did that
also after some time.--But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessively hard these three or four months, to get my wall
done; and the 14th of April I closed it up; contriving to get into it,
not by a door, but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no
sign on the outside of my habitation.
_April 16._ I finished the ladder; so I went up with 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 all my
labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus:--As I
was busy in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at the entrance into
my cave, I was terribly frightened 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 really was the cause,
only thinking that the top of my cave was falling 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 down upon the firm 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 that the very
sea was put into a violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks were
stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself (having never felt the like,
nor discoursed with any one that had) that I was like one dead or
stupified; 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 awaked
me, as it were; and rousing me from the stupified condition I was in,
filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing but the hill falling
upon my tent and my household goods, and burying all at once; 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; 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; and soon after the wind rose 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 with foam and froth; the shore was covered
with a 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 consequence 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 get 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 drowned my cave. After I had been in
my cave for some time, and found 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 me some 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 if I staid 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 now stood, being just under the hanging precipice of the hill, and
which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent.
I spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in
contriving where and how to remove my habitation. The fear of being
swallowed alive affected me so, 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 every thing was put in
order, how pleasantly I was concealed, and how safe from danger, it made
me very loth to remove. In the mean time, 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 run the risk where I was, till I had formed a convenient
camp, and secured it so as to remove to it. With this conclusion 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, &c. in a circle as
before, and set up my tent in it when it was finished; but that I would
venture to stay where I was till it was ready, and fit to remove to.
This was the 21st.
_April_ 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put this
measure into execution; but I was at a great loss about the 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, and dull; and though I had a
grind-stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too. This caused 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 grind-stone was very large and heavy.
This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection.
_April 28, 29._ These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, my
machine for turning my grind-stone performing very well.
_April 30._ Having perceived that my bread had been low a great while, I
now took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day,
which made my heart very heavy.
_May 1._ In the morning, looking toward the sea-side, the tide 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 that 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 the 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.
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 to pieces, and parted from the
rest, by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging of her)
was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side: and the sand was
thrown so high on that side next her stern, that I could now walk quite
up to her when the tide was out; whereas there was a great piece of
water before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the
wreck without swimming. 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 any
thing, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of the
ship, concluding that every thing 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 swim on shore when the tide of flood came on.
_May 6._ Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her, and
other pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very much
tired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
_May 7._ Went to the wreck again, but 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 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 and sand. I wrenched up 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 hundred weight
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 staid 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, 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
blowing 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 gotten timber, and plank, and iron-work, enough to have built a
good boat, if I had known how: and I also got, at several times, and in
several pieces, near one hundred weight of the sheet-lead.
_June 16._ Going down to the sea-side, 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 threescore
eggs: and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and
pleasant that I ever tasted in my life; having had no flesh, but of
goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
_June 18._ Rained all that day, and I staid within. I thought, at this
time, the rain felt cold, and I was somewhat chilly; which I knew was
not usual in that latitude.
_June 19._ Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.
_June 20._ No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.
_June 21._ Very ill; frightened almost to death with the 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 23._ Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent
head-ache.
_June 24._ Much better.
_June 25._ An ague very violent: the fit held me seven hours; cold fit,
and hot, with faint sweats after it.
_June 26._ Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but 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 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 whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning,
and went to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible dream:
I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of my wall,
where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that I saw 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 had
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 upward towards God, or inward
towards a reflection upon my own ways: but a certain stupidity of soul,
without desire of good, or consciousness 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 him, in deliverances.
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 its being the hand of God, or that it was a just punishment
for my sin; either my rebellious behaviour against my father, or my
present sins, which were great; or even 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 quite 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 Portuguese
captain, well used, and dealt with justly and honourably, 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 first got on shore 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 to me: 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 into my head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal, had, at first,
some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness,
as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it; but as soon as
that part of the thought was removed, all the impression which 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 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 leisure 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 reproached 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 from me some words like praying to
God: though I cannot say it was a prayer attended either 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 in my head
with the mere apprehension: 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 should have leisure hereafter 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 station of life
wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither see it
myself, nor learn from my parents to know the blessing of it. I left
them to mourn over my folly; and now I am left to mourn under the
consequences of it: I refused their help and assistance, who would have
pushed me in the world, and would have made every thing easy to me; and
now I have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature
itself to support; and no assistance, 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 I
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. The first thing I did
was to fill a large square case-bottle with water; and set it upon my
table, in reach of my bed: and to t
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/11239