Robinson Crusoe

SURVEYS HIS POSITION

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

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than
that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my
observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all
inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse
condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the
dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe
ordered everything for the best; I say I quieted my mind with this, and
left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there.

Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered that if this
land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, see
some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was
the savage coast between the Spanish country and Brazils, where are
found the worst of savages; for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and
fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their
hands.

With these considerations, I walked very leisurely forward. I found
that side of the island where I now was much pleasanter than mine—the
open or savannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full
of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have
caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to
speak to me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I
knocked it down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it
home; but it was some years before I could make him speak; however, at
last I taught him to call me by name very familiarly. But the accident
that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its
place.

I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in the low
grounds hares (as I thought them to be) and foxes; but they differed
greatly from all the other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy
myself to eat them, though I killed several. But I had no need to be
venturous, for I had no want of food, and of that which was very good
too, especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle, or
tortoise, which added to my grapes, Leadenhall market could not have
furnished a table better than I, in proportion to the company; and
though my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for
thankfulness that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but had
rather plenty, even to dainties.

I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, or
thereabouts; but I took so many turns and re-turns to see what
discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place where I
resolved to sit down all night; and then I either reposed myself in a
tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature
could come at me without waking me.

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

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

I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine; but
yet I had not the least inclination to remove, for as I was fixed in my
habitation it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while I was
here to be as it were upon a journey, and from home. However, I
travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose about
twelve miles, and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a
mark, I concluded I would go home again, and that the next journey I
took should be on the other side of the island east from my dwelling,
and so round till I came to my post again.

I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could
easily keep all the island so much in my view that I could not miss
finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself
mistaken, for being come about two or three miles, I found myself
descended into a very large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and
those hills covered with wood, that I could not see which was my way by
any direction but that of the sun, nor even then, unless I knew very
well the position of the sun at that time of the day. It happened, to
my further misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four
days while I was in the valley, and not being able to see the sun, I
wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find the
seaside, look for my post, and come back the same way I went: and then,
by easy journeys, I turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot,
and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things very heavy.

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

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

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long
journey; during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty
affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere
domestic, and to be well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of
the poor kid which I had penned in within my little circle, and
resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food; accordingly I
went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it could not get out,
but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of
trees, and branches of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over,
and having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it
was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it, for
it followed me like a dog: and as I continually fed it, the creature
became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time
one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.

The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the
30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being the
anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there two
years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I
came there, I spent the whole day in humble and thankful
acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary
condition was attended with, and without which it might have been
infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had
been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more
happy in this solitary condition than I should have been in the liberty
of society, and in all the pleasures of the world; that He could fully
make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of
human society, by His presence and the communications of His grace to
my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon His
providence here, and hope for His eternal presence hereafter.

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

Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for viewing the
country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me
on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the
woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner,
locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an
uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the
greatest composure of my mind, this would break out upon me like a
storm, and make me wring my hands and weep like a child. Sometimes it
would take me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit
down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two together;
and this was still worse to me, for if I could burst out into tears, or
vent myself by words, it would go off, and the grief, having exhausted
itself, would abate.

But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts: I daily read the
word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state.
One morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, “I
will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Immediately it
occurred that these words were to me; why else should they be directed
in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my
condition, as one forsaken of God and man? “Well, then,” said I, “if
God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what
matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other
hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing
of God, there would be no comparison in the loss?”

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible
for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it
was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in
the world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for
bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something
shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words. “How
canst thou become such a hypocrite,” said I, even audibly, “to pretend
to be thankful for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to
be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered
from?” So I stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God for
being there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by
whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my
life, and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the
Bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God for directing
my friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my
goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of
the ship.

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and
though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an
account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may be
observed that I was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my
time according to the several daily employments that were before me,
such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I
constantly set apart some time for thrice every day; secondly, the
going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up three
hours in every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering,
cutting, preserving, and cooking what I had killed or caught for my
supply; these took up great part of the day. Also, it is to be
considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the
zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that
about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed to
work in, with this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours of
hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with
my gun in the afternoon.

To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of
tools, want of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out of
my time. For example, I was full two and forty days in making a board
for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with
their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same
tree in half a day.

My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down,
because my board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three days in
cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a
log or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced
both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light enough to
move; then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a
board from end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the other
side til I brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth
on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece
of work; but labour and patience carried me through that, and many
other things. I only observe this in particular, to show the reason why
so much of my time went away with so little work—viz. that what might
be a little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour and
required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. But
notwithstanding this, with patience and labour I got through everything
that my circumstances made necessary to me to do, as will appear by
what follows.

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

This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a
hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more, because it
required speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to my
crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks’ time; and
shooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I set my dog to guard it
in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand
and bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the
place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen
apace.

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

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

I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily see
the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waited
till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as I walked
off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight than they
dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I
could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every
grain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me in
the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed
three of them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and
served them as we serve notorious thieves in England—hanged them in
chains, for a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this
should have such an effect as it had, for the fowls would not only not
come at the corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the
island, and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my
scarecrows hung there. This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and
about the latter end of December, which was our second harvest of the
year, I reaped my corn.

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

However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that, in
time, it would please God to supply me with bread. And yet here I was
perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal of my
corn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal,
how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to
bake it. These things being added to my desire of having a good
quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to
taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the next
season; and in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working
to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread.

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

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

First, I had no plough to turn up the earth—no spade or shovel to dig
it. Well, this I conquered by making me a wooden spade, as I observed
before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost
me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only
wore out soon, but made my work the harder, and made it be performed
much worse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out
with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the
corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself,
and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it
may be called, rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing, and
grown, I have observed already how many things I wanted to fence it,
secure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from
the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to
dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it;
but all these things I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the
corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me too. All this, as I
said, made everything laborious and tedious to me; but that there was
no help for. Neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had
divided it, a certain part of it was every day appointed to these
works; and as I had resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I
had a greater quantity by me, I had the next six months to apply myself
wholly, by labour and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper
for the performing all the operations necessary for making the corn,
when I had it, fit for my use.