August 17, 2025 • 37 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen, Wreck of a Spanish Ship. I was now
in the twenty third year of my residence in this island,
and was so naturalized to the place and the manner
of living that could I but have enjoyed the certainty
that no savages would come to the place to disturb me.
(00:23):
I could have been content for capitulating to spend the
rest of my time there, even to the last moment
till I had laid me down and died like the
old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to
some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass
a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before.
(00:45):
First I had taught my pal, as I noted before,
to speak, and he did it so familiarly, and talked
so articulately and plain that it was very pleasant to me.
And he lived with me no less than six and
twenty years. How long he might have lived afterwards, I
(01:06):
know not, though I know they have a notion in
the Brazils that they live one hundred years. My dog
was a pleasant and loving companion to me for no
less than sixteen years of my time, and then died
of mere old age, as for my cats. They multiplied,
(01:27):
as I have observed, to that degree that I was
obliged to shoot several of them at first to keep
them from devouring me and all I had. But at length,
when the two old ones I brought with me were gone,
and after some time continually driving them from me and
letting them have no provision with me, they all ran
(01:48):
wild into the woods, except two or three favorites, which
I kept saying, and who's young? When they had any,
I always drowned, and these were part of my family.
Besides these, I always kept two or three household kids
about me, whom I taught two feet out of my hand.
(02:10):
And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well
and would all call Robin Crusoe. But not like my first,
nor indeed did I take the pains with any of
them that I had done with him. I had also
several tame sea fowls whose name I knew, not that
(02:32):
I caught upon the shore and cut their wings, and
the little steaks which I had planted before my castle wall,
being now grown up to a good thick rove. These
fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there,
which was very agreeable to me, so that, as I
said above, I began to be very well contented with
(02:54):
the life I led, if I could have secured from
the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise directed.
And it may not be amiss for all people who
shall meet with my story to make this just observation
from it. How frequently, in the course of our lives,
(03:15):
the evil, which in itself we seek most to shun,
and which when we are fallen into, is the most
dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door
of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised
again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could
(03:36):
give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life, but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable
than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary
residence in this island. It was now the month of December,
as I said above, in my twenty third year, and
(03:57):
this being the southern solstice for winter I can call
it was the particular time of my harvest, and required
me to be pretty much abroad in the fields. When
going out early in the morning, even before it was
thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
(04:18):
some fire upon the shore at a distance from me
of about two miles, toward that part of the island
where I had observed some savages had been as before,
and not on the other side, But to my great affliction,
it was on my side of the island. I was
(04:40):
indeed terribly surprised, and stopped short within my grove at
the sight, not daring to go out lest I might
be surprised. And yet I had no more peace within
from the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in
rambling over the eye should find my corn standing, or cut,
(05:04):
or any of my works or improvements, they would immediately
conclude that there were people in the place, and would
never rest then till they had found me out and
this extremity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled
up the ladder after me, and made all things without
(05:25):
look as wild and natural as I could. Then I
prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defense.
I loaded all my cannon as I called them, that
is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my
new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend
(05:46):
myself to the last gasp, not forgetting to commend myself
seriously to the divine protection and earnestly to pray to
God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians.
I continued in this posture about two hours and began
(06:06):
to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no
spies to send out. After sitting a while longer and
musing what I should do in this case, I was
not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer, so setting
up my ladder to the side of the hill where
(06:27):
there was a flat place as I observed before, and
then pulling the ladder after me, I set it up
again and mounted the top of the hill, and pulling
out my prospective glass, which I had taken on purpose,
I laid me down flat on my belly on the
ground and began to look for the place I presently found.
(06:49):
There were no less than nine naked savages sitting round
a small fire they had made, not to warm them,
for they had no need of at the weather being
extremely hot. But as I supposed to dress, some of
their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought
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with them, whether alive or dead, I could not tell.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled
up upon the shore, and as it was then ebb
of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the
return of the flood to go away again. It is
not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into,
(07:35):
especially seeing them come on my side of the island
and so near to me. But when I considered their
coming must be always with the current of the ebb,
I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind,
being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all
the time of the flood, all the time of the tide,
(07:58):
if they were not on shore before. And having made
this observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with
the more composure as I expected. So it proved, for
as soon as the tide made to the westward, I
saw them all take boat and row or paddle as
(08:20):
we call it away. I should have observed that for
an hour or more before they went off, they were dancing,
and I could discern their postures and gestures by my glass.
I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that
they were stark, naked and had not the least covering
(08:43):
upon them, but whether they were men or women I
could not distinguish. As soon as I saw them shipped
and gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and
two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by
my side without a scabbard, and with all the speed
I was able to make, went away to the hill
(09:04):
where I had discovered the first appearance of all. And
as soon as I got thither, which was not in
less than two hours, for I could not go quickly,
being so loaded with arms as I was, I perceived
there had been three canoes more of the savages at
that place, and looking out farther I saw they were
(09:27):
all at sea together making over for the main. This
was a dreadful sight to me, especially as going down
to the shore I could see the marks of horror
which the dismal work they had been about had left
behind it. That is, the blood, the bones, and part
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of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by
those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled
with indignation at the site that I now began to
premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there.
Let them be whom or how many. Soever, it seemed
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evident to me that the visits which they made thus
to this island were not very frequent, for it was
above fifteen months before any more of them came on
shore there. Again, that is to say, I neither saw them,
nor any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time.
For as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure
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not to come abroad, at least not so far yet.
All this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the
constant apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise. From
whence I observe that the expectation of evil is more
bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room
(10:56):
to shake off that expectation or those apprehension. During all
this time I was in a murdering humor, and spent
most of my hours, which should have been better employed,
in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the
very next time I should see them, especially if they
(11:16):
should be divided, as they were the last time, into
two parties. Nor did I consider at all that if
I killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I
was still the next day or week or a month
to kill another, and so another, even odd infinitum, till
I should be at length no less a murderer than
(11:38):
they were in being man eaters, and perhaps much more so.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety
of mind, expecting that I should one day or other
fall into the hands of these merciless creatures. And if
I did at any time venture abroad, it was not
(12:00):
without looking around me with the greatest care and caution imaginable.
And now I found, to my great comfort how happy
it was that I had provided a tame flock or
herd of goats for I durst not upon any account
fire my gun, especially near that side of the island
(12:21):
where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages.
And if they had fled from me, now I was
sure to have them come again, with perhaps two or
three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and
then I knew what to expect. However, I wore out
(12:41):
a year and three months more before I ever saw
any more of the savages, and then I found them again.
As I shall soon observe, it is true they might
have been there once or twice, but either they made
no stay, or at least I did not see them.
But in the month of May, as far as I
could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I
(13:06):
had a very strange encounter with them, of which in
its place, the perturbation of my mind during this fifteen
or sixteen months interval was very great. I slept unquietly,
dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of my
(13:29):
sleep in the night. In the day, great troubles overwhelmed
my mind, and in the night I dreamed often of
killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might
justify doing it. But to waive all of this for
a while. It was in the middle of May, on
the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor
(13:51):
wooden calendar would reckon before I marked all upon the posts. Still,
I say it was on the sixteenth of May that
it blew a very great storm of wind all day,
with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a
very foul night. It was after it I knew not
(14:14):
what was the particular occasion of it. But as I
was reading in the Bible and taken up with very
serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with
the noise of a gun, as I thought fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of different
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nature from any I had met with before, for the
notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind.
I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in
a trice, clapped my ladder in the middle place of
the rock, pulled it up after me, and mounting it
the second time, got to the top of the hill
the very moment that a flash of fire bid me
(14:59):
listen for a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half
a minute I heard, and by the sound knew that
it was from that part of the sea where I
was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately
considered that this must be some ship in distress, and
that they had some comrade or some other ship in company,
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and fired these for signals of distress and to obtain help.
I had the presence of mine at that minute to
think that though I could not help them, it might
be that they might help me. So I brought together
all the dry wood I could get at hand, and
making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire
(15:44):
upon the hill. The wood was dry and blazed freely,
and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned
fairly out, so that I was certain if there was
any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it,
and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever
my fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and after
(16:06):
that several others, all from the same quarter. I plied
my fire all night long till daybreak, and when it
was broad day and the air cleared up, I saw
something at a great distance at sea, full east of
the island, whether a sail or a hull, I could
(16:26):
not distinguish, no, not with my glass. The distance was
so great, and the weather still something hazy. Also, at
least it was so out at sea. I looked frequently
at it all that day, and soon perceived that it
did not move. So I presently concluded that it was
(16:47):
a ship at anchor, and, being eager, you may be
sure to be satisfied. I took my gun in my
hand and ran towards the south side of the island
to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away
by the current, And getting up there, the weather by
this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see to
(17:08):
my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away
in the night, upon those concealed rocks which I found
when I was out in my boat, and which rocks,
as they checked the violence of the stream, and made
a kind of counter system, or eddy where the occasion
of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that
(17:32):
ever I had been in in all my life. Thus,
but as one man's safety is another man's destruction. For
it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of
their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly underwater, had been
driven upon them in the night, and the wind blowing
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hard at east northeast. Had they seen the island, as
I must necessarily suppose they did not, They must, as
I thought, have endeavored to have saved themselves on shore
by the help of their boat. But their firing of
guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined,
my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First I imagined
(18:17):
that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves
into their boat and endeavored to make the shore, but
that the sea running very high, they might have been
cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have
lost their boat before, as might be the case in
many ways, particularly by the breaking of the sea upon
(18:43):
their ship, which many times obliged men to stave or
take to pieces their boat, and sometimes to throw it
overboard with their own hands. Other times I imagined that
they had some other ship or ships in company, who,
upon the signals of distress they made, had taken them
up and carried them off. Other times I fancied they
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were all gone off to see in their boat and
being hurried away by the current that I had formerly been,
and were carried out into the great ocean, where there
was nothing but misery and perishing, And that perhaps they
might by this time think of starving and of being
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in a condition to eat one another. As all these
were but conjectures at best. So in the condition I
was in, I could do no more than look upon
the misery of the poor men and pity them, which
had still this good effect upon my side, that it
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gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God,
who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in
my desolate condition, and that of two ships companies who
were now cast away upon this part of the world.
Not one life should be spared but mine. I learned
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here again to observe that it is very rare that
the providence of God casts us into any condition so low,
or any misery so great. But we may see something
or other to be thankful for, and may see others
in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was the
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case of these men, of whom I could not so
much as see room to suppose any were saved. Nothing
could make it rational so much as to wish or
expect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of their being taken up by another ship
in company. And this was but mere possibility, indeed, for
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I saw not the least sign or appearance of any
such thing. I cannot explain by any possible energy of words,
what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon
the sight breaking out. Sometimes thus, oh, that there had
been but one or two, nay, or but one soul
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saved out of the ship to have escaped to me,
that I might but have had one companion, one fellow creature,
to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with
In all the time of my solitary life, I never
felt so earnest, so strong a desire. After the society
of my fellow creatures, or so deep a regret at
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the want of it. There are some secret springs in
the affections which, when they are set agoing by some
object in view, or though not in view, yet rendered
present to the mind by the power of imagination, that
motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity, to such violent,
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eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it
is insupportable. Such were these earnest wishings that but one
man had been saved. I believe I repeated the words, oh,
that it had been but one a thousand times, and
my desires were so moved by it that when I
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spoke the words, my hands would clench together, and my
fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that
if I had had any soft thing in my hand,
I would have crushed it involuntarily, and the teeth in
my head would strike together and set against one another
so strong that for some time I could not part
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them again. Let the naturalists explain these things and the
reason and manner of them. All I can do is
to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me
when I found it, though I knew not from whence
it proceeded. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes
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and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the
comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow Christians
would have been to me. But it was not to be.
Either their fate for mine, or both forbade it. For
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till the last year of my being on this island,
I never knew whether any were saved out of that
ship or no, and had only the affliction some days
after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come
on shore at the end of the island, which was
next the wreck. He had no clothes on but a
(23:59):
seaman's westcotte, a pair of open kneed linen drawers, and
a blue linen shirt, but nothing to direct me so
much as to guess what nation he was of. He
had nothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight
and a tobacco pipe. The last was to me of
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ten times more value than the first. It was now calm,
and I had a great mind to venture out in
my boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might
find something on board that might be useful to me.
But that did not altogether press me so much as
the possibility that there might be yet some living creature
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on board whose life I might not only save, but might,
by saving his life, comfort my own to the last degree.
And this thought clung so to my heart that I
could not be quiet night or day, but I must
venture in my boat on board this wreck, and committing
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the rest to God's providence. I thought the impression was
so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted,
that it must come from some invisible direction, and that
I should be wanting to myself if I did not
go under the power of this impression. I hastened back
to my castle, prepared everything for my voyage. Took a
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quantity of bread, a great pot of fresh water, a
compass to steer by, a bottle of rhemfor I still
had a great deal of that left, and a basket
of raisins. And thus loading myself with everything necessary, I
went down to my boat, got the water out of her,
got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and
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then went home again for more. My second cargo was
a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up
over my head for a shade, another large pot of water,
and about two dozen of small loaves or barley cakes
more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and
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a cheese, all which with great labor and sweat I
carried to my boat, and, praying to God to direct
my voyage, I put out, and, rowing or paddling the
canoe along the shore, came at last to the utmost
point of the island, on the northeast side. And now
I was to launch out into the ocean, and either
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to venture or not to venture. I looked on the
rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the
island at a distance, and which were very terrible to
me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been
in before, and my heart began to fail me. For
I foresaw that if I was driven into either of
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those currents, I should be carried a great way out
to sea, and perhaps out of my reach or sight
of the island again, And that then, as my boat
was so small, if any little gale of wind should rise,
I should be inevitably lost. These thoughts so oppressed my
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mind that I began to give over my enterprise, And
having hauled my boat into a little creek, on the shore.
I stepped out and sat down upon a rising bit
of ground, very pensive and anxious between fear and desire
about my voyage. When as I was musing, I could
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perceive that the tide was turned and the flood come on,
upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours.
Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I should
go up to the highest piece of ground I could
find and observe if I could how the sets of
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the tide or currents lay when the flood came in,
that I might judge whether if I was driven one
way out, I might not expect to be driven another
way home with the same rapidity of the currents. This
thought was no sooner in my head than I cast
my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the
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sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear
view of the currents or sets of the tide, and
which way I was to guide myself in my return.
Here I found that as the current of Ebbs set
out close by the south point of the island, so
the current of the flood set in close by the
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shore of the north side, and that I had nothing
to do but to keep to the north side of
the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to
set out with the first of the tide, and reposing
myself for the night in my canoe under the watch
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coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a
little out to sea full north, till I began to
feel the benefit of the current which set eastward, and
which carried me at a great rate, and yet did
not so hurry me as the current on the south
side had done before, so as to take from me
all government of the boat. But having a strong steerage
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with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly
for the wreck, and in less than two hours I
came up to it. It was a dismal sight to
look at the ship, which by its building was Spanish,
stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern
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and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea,
and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had
run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off.
But her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow
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appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog
appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried,
and as soon as I called him, jumped into the
sea to come to me. I took him into the boat,
but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst. I
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gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured
it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a
fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature
some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him,
he would have burst himself. After this I went on board,
but the first sight I met was two men drowned
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in the cook room or forecastle of the ship, with
their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as is
indeed probable, that when the ship struck it, being in
a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually
over her, that the men were not able to bear it,
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and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water,
as much as if they had been underwater. Besides the dog,
there was nothing left in the ship that had life,
nor any goods that I could see, but what were
spoiled by the water. There were some casts of liquor,
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whether wine or brandy. I knew not which lay lower
in the hold, and which the water being ebbed out,
I could see, but they were too big to meddle with.
I saw several chests, which I believe belonged to some
of the seamen, and I got two of them into
my boat without examining what was in them. Had the
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stern of the ship fixed and the four part broken off,
I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage,
for by what I found in those two chests, I
had room to suppose the ship had a great deal
of wealth on board, and if I may guess from
the course she steered, she must have been bound from
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Buenos Aires or the Rio de la Plata in the
south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havana
in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.
She had, no doubt a great treasure in her, but
of no use at that time to anybody. And what
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became of the crew I then knew not. I found
beside those chests a little cask full of liquor of
about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with
much difficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin, and
a great powder horn with about four pounds of powder
in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion
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for them, so I left them, but took the powder horn.
I took a fire shovel and tongs, which I wanted
extremely as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot
to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo
and the dog, I came away the tide, beginning to
make home again, and the same evening about an hour
(33:28):
within night I reached the island again. Weary and fatigued
to the last degree, I reposed that night in the boat,
and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I
had got in my new cave, and not carry it
home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all
my cargo on board and began to examine the particulars.
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The cask of liquor I found to be a kind
of rum, but not such as we had at the brazils,
and in a word, not at all good. But when
I came to open the chests I found several things
of great use to me. For example, I found in
one a fine case of bottles of an extraordinary kind,
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and filled with cordial waters, fine and very good. The
bottles held about three pints each and were tipped with silver.
I found two pots of very good soucades or sweetmeats,
so fastened also on the top that the salt water
had not hurt them, and two more of the same
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which the water had spoiled. I found some very good shirts,
which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen
and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths.
The former were also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to
wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when
(34:56):
I came to the till. In the chest, I found
three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about
eleven hundred pieces in all, and in one of them,
wrapped up in a paper, six the balloons of gold,
in some small bars or wedges of gold. I suppose
(35:16):
they might all weigh near a pound. In the other
chest there were some clothes, but of little value, but
by the circumstances it must have belonged to the gunner's mate,
though there was no powder in it, except two pounds
of fine clazed powder in three flasts kept, I suppose,
(35:39):
for charging their falling pieces on occasion. Upon the whole
I got very little by this voyage that was of
any use to me. For as to the money, I
had no manner of occasion for it. It was to
me as the dirt under my feet. And I would
(35:59):
have given it all for three or four pair of
English shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
but had had none on my feet for many years.
I had indeed got two pair of shoes now, which
I took off the feet of the two drowned men
whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two
(36:22):
pair more and one of the chests, which were very
welcome to me. But they were not like our English shoes,
either for ease or service, being rather what we call
pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about
fifty pieces of eight in rial's, but no gold. I
(36:45):
suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other,
which seemed to belong to some officer. Well. However, I
lugged this money home to my cave, as I had
done that before, which I had brought from our own ship.
But it was a great pity as I said that
(37:08):
the other part of this ship had not come to
my share, for I am satisfied. I might have loaded
my canoe several times over with money, and thought, if
I ever escaped to England, it might lie here safe
enough till I come again and fetch it. End of
(37:29):
Chapter thirteen.
Chapter thirteen, Wreck of a Spanish Ship. I was now
in the twenty third year of my residence in this island,
and was so naturalized to the place and the manner
of living that could I but have enjoyed the certainty
that no savages would come to the place to disturb me.
(00:23):
I could have been content for capitulating to spend the
rest of my time there, even to the last moment
till I had laid me down and died like the
old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to
some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass
a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before.
(00:45):
First I had taught my pal, as I noted before,
to speak, and he did it so familiarly, and talked
so articulately and plain that it was very pleasant to me.
And he lived with me no less than six and
twenty years. How long he might have lived afterwards, I
(01:06):
know not, though I know they have a notion in
the Brazils that they live one hundred years. My dog
was a pleasant and loving companion to me for no
less than sixteen years of my time, and then died
of mere old age, as for my cats. They multiplied,
(01:27):
as I have observed, to that degree that I was
obliged to shoot several of them at first to keep
them from devouring me and all I had. But at length,
when the two old ones I brought with me were gone,
and after some time continually driving them from me and
letting them have no provision with me, they all ran
(01:48):
wild into the woods, except two or three favorites, which
I kept saying, and who's young? When they had any,
I always drowned, and these were part of my family.
Besides these, I always kept two or three household kids
about me, whom I taught two feet out of my hand.
(02:10):
And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well
and would all call Robin Crusoe. But not like my first,
nor indeed did I take the pains with any of
them that I had done with him. I had also
several tame sea fowls whose name I knew, not that
(02:32):
I caught upon the shore and cut their wings, and
the little steaks which I had planted before my castle wall,
being now grown up to a good thick rove. These
fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there,
which was very agreeable to me, so that, as I
said above, I began to be very well contented with
(02:54):
the life I led, if I could have secured from
the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise directed.
And it may not be amiss for all people who
shall meet with my story to make this just observation
from it. How frequently, in the course of our lives,
(03:15):
the evil, which in itself we seek most to shun,
and which when we are fallen into, is the most
dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door
of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised
again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could
(03:36):
give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life, but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable
than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary
residence in this island. It was now the month of December,
as I said above, in my twenty third year, and
(03:57):
this being the southern solstice for winter I can call
it was the particular time of my harvest, and required
me to be pretty much abroad in the fields. When
going out early in the morning, even before it was
thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
(04:18):
some fire upon the shore at a distance from me
of about two miles, toward that part of the island
where I had observed some savages had been as before,
and not on the other side, But to my great affliction,
it was on my side of the island. I was
(04:40):
indeed terribly surprised, and stopped short within my grove at
the sight, not daring to go out lest I might
be surprised. And yet I had no more peace within
from the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in
rambling over the eye should find my corn standing, or cut,
(05:04):
or any of my works or improvements, they would immediately
conclude that there were people in the place, and would
never rest then till they had found me out and
this extremity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled
up the ladder after me, and made all things without
(05:25):
look as wild and natural as I could. Then I
prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defense.
I loaded all my cannon as I called them, that
is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my
new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend
(05:46):
myself to the last gasp, not forgetting to commend myself
seriously to the divine protection and earnestly to pray to
God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians.
I continued in this posture about two hours and began
(06:06):
to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no
spies to send out. After sitting a while longer and
musing what I should do in this case, I was
not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer, so setting
up my ladder to the side of the hill where
(06:27):
there was a flat place as I observed before, and
then pulling the ladder after me, I set it up
again and mounted the top of the hill, and pulling
out my prospective glass, which I had taken on purpose,
I laid me down flat on my belly on the
ground and began to look for the place I presently found.
(06:49):
There were no less than nine naked savages sitting round
a small fire they had made, not to warm them,
for they had no need of at the weather being
extremely hot. But as I supposed to dress, some of
their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought
(07:11):
with them, whether alive or dead, I could not tell.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled
up upon the shore, and as it was then ebb
of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the
return of the flood to go away again. It is
not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into,
(07:35):
especially seeing them come on my side of the island
and so near to me. But when I considered their
coming must be always with the current of the ebb,
I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind,
being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all
the time of the flood, all the time of the tide,
(07:58):
if they were not on shore before. And having made
this observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with
the more composure as I expected. So it proved, for
as soon as the tide made to the westward, I
saw them all take boat and row or paddle as
(08:20):
we call it away. I should have observed that for
an hour or more before they went off, they were dancing,
and I could discern their postures and gestures by my glass.
I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that
they were stark, naked and had not the least covering
(08:43):
upon them, but whether they were men or women I
could not distinguish. As soon as I saw them shipped
and gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and
two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by
my side without a scabbard, and with all the speed
I was able to make, went away to the hill
(09:04):
where I had discovered the first appearance of all. And
as soon as I got thither, which was not in
less than two hours, for I could not go quickly,
being so loaded with arms as I was, I perceived
there had been three canoes more of the savages at
that place, and looking out farther I saw they were
(09:27):
all at sea together making over for the main. This
was a dreadful sight to me, especially as going down
to the shore I could see the marks of horror
which the dismal work they had been about had left
behind it. That is, the blood, the bones, and part
(09:48):
of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by
those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled
with indignation at the site that I now began to
premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there.
Let them be whom or how many. Soever, it seemed
(10:11):
evident to me that the visits which they made thus
to this island were not very frequent, for it was
above fifteen months before any more of them came on
shore there. Again, that is to say, I neither saw them,
nor any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time.
For as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure
(10:33):
not to come abroad, at least not so far yet.
All this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the
constant apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise. From
whence I observe that the expectation of evil is more
bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room
(10:56):
to shake off that expectation or those apprehension. During all
this time I was in a murdering humor, and spent
most of my hours, which should have been better employed,
in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the
very next time I should see them, especially if they
(11:16):
should be divided, as they were the last time, into
two parties. Nor did I consider at all that if
I killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I
was still the next day or week or a month
to kill another, and so another, even odd infinitum, till
I should be at length no less a murderer than
(11:38):
they were in being man eaters, and perhaps much more so.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety
of mind, expecting that I should one day or other
fall into the hands of these merciless creatures. And if
I did at any time venture abroad, it was not
(12:00):
without looking around me with the greatest care and caution imaginable.
And now I found, to my great comfort how happy
it was that I had provided a tame flock or
herd of goats for I durst not upon any account
fire my gun, especially near that side of the island
(12:21):
where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages.
And if they had fled from me, now I was
sure to have them come again, with perhaps two or
three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and
then I knew what to expect. However, I wore out
(12:41):
a year and three months more before I ever saw
any more of the savages, and then I found them again.
As I shall soon observe, it is true they might
have been there once or twice, but either they made
no stay, or at least I did not see them.
But in the month of May, as far as I
could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I
(13:06):
had a very strange encounter with them, of which in
its place, the perturbation of my mind during this fifteen
or sixteen months interval was very great. I slept unquietly,
dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of my
(13:29):
sleep in the night. In the day, great troubles overwhelmed
my mind, and in the night I dreamed often of
killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might
justify doing it. But to waive all of this for
a while. It was in the middle of May, on
the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor
(13:51):
wooden calendar would reckon before I marked all upon the posts. Still,
I say it was on the sixteenth of May that
it blew a very great storm of wind all day,
with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a
very foul night. It was after it I knew not
(14:14):
what was the particular occasion of it. But as I
was reading in the Bible and taken up with very
serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with
the noise of a gun, as I thought fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of different
(14:36):
nature from any I had met with before, for the
notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind.
I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in
a trice, clapped my ladder in the middle place of
the rock, pulled it up after me, and mounting it
the second time, got to the top of the hill
the very moment that a flash of fire bid me
(14:59):
listen for a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half
a minute I heard, and by the sound knew that
it was from that part of the sea where I
was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately
considered that this must be some ship in distress, and
that they had some comrade or some other ship in company,
(15:23):
and fired these for signals of distress and to obtain help.
I had the presence of mine at that minute to
think that though I could not help them, it might
be that they might help me. So I brought together
all the dry wood I could get at hand, and
making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire
(15:44):
upon the hill. The wood was dry and blazed freely,
and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned
fairly out, so that I was certain if there was
any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it,
and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever
my fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and after
(16:06):
that several others, all from the same quarter. I plied
my fire all night long till daybreak, and when it
was broad day and the air cleared up, I saw
something at a great distance at sea, full east of
the island, whether a sail or a hull, I could
(16:26):
not distinguish, no, not with my glass. The distance was
so great, and the weather still something hazy. Also, at
least it was so out at sea. I looked frequently
at it all that day, and soon perceived that it
did not move. So I presently concluded that it was
(16:47):
a ship at anchor, and, being eager, you may be
sure to be satisfied. I took my gun in my
hand and ran towards the south side of the island
to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away
by the current, And getting up there, the weather by
this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see to
(17:08):
my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away
in the night, upon those concealed rocks which I found
when I was out in my boat, and which rocks,
as they checked the violence of the stream, and made
a kind of counter system, or eddy where the occasion
of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that
(17:32):
ever I had been in in all my life. Thus,
but as one man's safety is another man's destruction. For
it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of
their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly underwater, had been
driven upon them in the night, and the wind blowing
(17:53):
hard at east northeast. Had they seen the island, as
I must necessarily suppose they did not, They must, as
I thought, have endeavored to have saved themselves on shore
by the help of their boat. But their firing of
guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined,
my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First I imagined
(18:17):
that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves
into their boat and endeavored to make the shore, but
that the sea running very high, they might have been
cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have
lost their boat before, as might be the case in
many ways, particularly by the breaking of the sea upon
(18:43):
their ship, which many times obliged men to stave or
take to pieces their boat, and sometimes to throw it
overboard with their own hands. Other times I imagined that
they had some other ship or ships in company, who,
upon the signals of distress they made, had taken them
up and carried them off. Other times I fancied they
(19:07):
were all gone off to see in their boat and
being hurried away by the current that I had formerly been,
and were carried out into the great ocean, where there
was nothing but misery and perishing, And that perhaps they
might by this time think of starving and of being
(19:29):
in a condition to eat one another. As all these
were but conjectures at best. So in the condition I
was in, I could do no more than look upon
the misery of the poor men and pity them, which
had still this good effect upon my side, that it
(19:52):
gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God,
who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in
my desolate condition, and that of two ships companies who
were now cast away upon this part of the world.
Not one life should be spared but mine. I learned
(20:13):
here again to observe that it is very rare that
the providence of God casts us into any condition so low,
or any misery so great. But we may see something
or other to be thankful for, and may see others
in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was the
(20:34):
case of these men, of whom I could not so
much as see room to suppose any were saved. Nothing
could make it rational so much as to wish or
expect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of their being taken up by another ship
in company. And this was but mere possibility, indeed, for
(20:59):
I saw not the least sign or appearance of any
such thing. I cannot explain by any possible energy of words,
what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon
the sight breaking out. Sometimes thus, oh, that there had
been but one or two, nay, or but one soul
(21:22):
saved out of the ship to have escaped to me,
that I might but have had one companion, one fellow creature,
to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with
In all the time of my solitary life, I never
felt so earnest, so strong a desire. After the society
of my fellow creatures, or so deep a regret at
(21:47):
the want of it. There are some secret springs in
the affections which, when they are set agoing by some
object in view, or though not in view, yet rendered
present to the mind by the power of imagination, that
motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity, to such violent,
(22:11):
eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it
is insupportable. Such were these earnest wishings that but one
man had been saved. I believe I repeated the words, oh,
that it had been but one a thousand times, and
my desires were so moved by it that when I
(22:33):
spoke the words, my hands would clench together, and my
fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that
if I had had any soft thing in my hand,
I would have crushed it involuntarily, and the teeth in
my head would strike together and set against one another
so strong that for some time I could not part
(22:54):
them again. Let the naturalists explain these things and the
reason and manner of them. All I can do is
to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me
when I found it, though I knew not from whence
it proceeded. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes
(23:16):
and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the
comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow Christians
would have been to me. But it was not to be.
Either their fate for mine, or both forbade it. For
(23:37):
till the last year of my being on this island,
I never knew whether any were saved out of that
ship or no, and had only the affliction some days
after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come
on shore at the end of the island, which was
next the wreck. He had no clothes on but a
(23:59):
seaman's westcotte, a pair of open kneed linen drawers, and
a blue linen shirt, but nothing to direct me so
much as to guess what nation he was of. He
had nothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight
and a tobacco pipe. The last was to me of
(24:20):
ten times more value than the first. It was now calm,
and I had a great mind to venture out in
my boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might
find something on board that might be useful to me.
But that did not altogether press me so much as
the possibility that there might be yet some living creature
(24:43):
on board whose life I might not only save, but might,
by saving his life, comfort my own to the last degree.
And this thought clung so to my heart that I
could not be quiet night or day, but I must
venture in my boat on board this wreck, and committing
(25:03):
the rest to God's providence. I thought the impression was
so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted,
that it must come from some invisible direction, and that
I should be wanting to myself if I did not
go under the power of this impression. I hastened back
to my castle, prepared everything for my voyage. Took a
(25:26):
quantity of bread, a great pot of fresh water, a
compass to steer by, a bottle of rhemfor I still
had a great deal of that left, and a basket
of raisins. And thus loading myself with everything necessary, I
went down to my boat, got the water out of her,
got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and
(25:47):
then went home again for more. My second cargo was
a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up
over my head for a shade, another large pot of water,
and about two dozen of small loaves or barley cakes
more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and
(26:08):
a cheese, all which with great labor and sweat I
carried to my boat, and, praying to God to direct
my voyage, I put out, and, rowing or paddling the
canoe along the shore, came at last to the utmost
point of the island, on the northeast side. And now
I was to launch out into the ocean, and either
(26:29):
to venture or not to venture. I looked on the
rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the
island at a distance, and which were very terrible to
me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been
in before, and my heart began to fail me. For
I foresaw that if I was driven into either of
(26:51):
those currents, I should be carried a great way out
to sea, and perhaps out of my reach or sight
of the island again, And that then, as my boat
was so small, if any little gale of wind should rise,
I should be inevitably lost. These thoughts so oppressed my
(27:14):
mind that I began to give over my enterprise, And
having hauled my boat into a little creek, on the shore.
I stepped out and sat down upon a rising bit
of ground, very pensive and anxious between fear and desire
about my voyage. When as I was musing, I could
(27:37):
perceive that the tide was turned and the flood come on,
upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours.
Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I should
go up to the highest piece of ground I could
find and observe if I could how the sets of
(27:58):
the tide or currents lay when the flood came in,
that I might judge whether if I was driven one
way out, I might not expect to be driven another
way home with the same rapidity of the currents. This
thought was no sooner in my head than I cast
my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the
(28:20):
sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear
view of the currents or sets of the tide, and
which way I was to guide myself in my return.
Here I found that as the current of Ebbs set
out close by the south point of the island, so
the current of the flood set in close by the
(28:41):
shore of the north side, and that I had nothing
to do but to keep to the north side of
the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to
set out with the first of the tide, and reposing
myself for the night in my canoe under the watch
(29:04):
coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a
little out to sea full north, till I began to
feel the benefit of the current which set eastward, and
which carried me at a great rate, and yet did
not so hurry me as the current on the south
side had done before, so as to take from me
all government of the boat. But having a strong steerage
(29:28):
with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly
for the wreck, and in less than two hours I
came up to it. It was a dismal sight to
look at the ship, which by its building was Spanish,
stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern
(29:49):
and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea,
and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had
run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off.
But her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow
(30:10):
appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog
appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried,
and as soon as I called him, jumped into the
sea to come to me. I took him into the boat,
but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst. I
(30:31):
gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured
it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a
fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature
some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him,
he would have burst himself. After this I went on board,
but the first sight I met was two men drowned
(30:55):
in the cook room or forecastle of the ship, with
their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as is
indeed probable, that when the ship struck it, being in
a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually
over her, that the men were not able to bear it,
(31:17):
and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water,
as much as if they had been underwater. Besides the dog,
there was nothing left in the ship that had life,
nor any goods that I could see, but what were
spoiled by the water. There were some casts of liquor,
(31:37):
whether wine or brandy. I knew not which lay lower
in the hold, and which the water being ebbed out,
I could see, but they were too big to meddle with.
I saw several chests, which I believe belonged to some
of the seamen, and I got two of them into
my boat without examining what was in them. Had the
(31:58):
stern of the ship fixed and the four part broken off,
I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage,
for by what I found in those two chests, I
had room to suppose the ship had a great deal
of wealth on board, and if I may guess from
the course she steered, she must have been bound from
(32:19):
Buenos Aires or the Rio de la Plata in the
south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havana
in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.
She had, no doubt a great treasure in her, but
of no use at that time to anybody. And what
(32:41):
became of the crew I then knew not. I found
beside those chests a little cask full of liquor of
about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with
much difficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin, and
a great powder horn with about four pounds of powder
in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion
(33:05):
for them, so I left them, but took the powder horn.
I took a fire shovel and tongs, which I wanted
extremely as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot
to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo
and the dog, I came away the tide, beginning to
make home again, and the same evening about an hour
(33:28):
within night I reached the island again. Weary and fatigued
to the last degree, I reposed that night in the boat,
and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I
had got in my new cave, and not carry it
home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all
my cargo on board and began to examine the particulars.
(33:53):
The cask of liquor I found to be a kind
of rum, but not such as we had at the brazils,
and in a word, not at all good. But when
I came to open the chests I found several things
of great use to me. For example, I found in
one a fine case of bottles of an extraordinary kind,
(34:14):
and filled with cordial waters, fine and very good. The
bottles held about three pints each and were tipped with silver.
I found two pots of very good soucades or sweetmeats,
so fastened also on the top that the salt water
had not hurt them, and two more of the same
(34:35):
which the water had spoiled. I found some very good shirts,
which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen
and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths.
The former were also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to
wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when
(34:56):
I came to the till. In the chest, I found
three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about
eleven hundred pieces in all, and in one of them,
wrapped up in a paper, six the balloons of gold,
in some small bars or wedges of gold. I suppose
(35:16):
they might all weigh near a pound. In the other
chest there were some clothes, but of little value, but
by the circumstances it must have belonged to the gunner's mate,
though there was no powder in it, except two pounds
of fine clazed powder in three flasts kept, I suppose,
(35:39):
for charging their falling pieces on occasion. Upon the whole
I got very little by this voyage that was of
any use to me. For as to the money, I
had no manner of occasion for it. It was to
me as the dirt under my feet. And I would
(35:59):
have given it all for three or four pair of
English shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
but had had none on my feet for many years.
I had indeed got two pair of shoes now, which
I took off the feet of the two drowned men
whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two
(36:22):
pair more and one of the chests, which were very
welcome to me. But they were not like our English shoes,
either for ease or service, being rather what we call
pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about
fifty pieces of eight in rial's, but no gold. I
(36:45):
suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other,
which seemed to belong to some officer. Well. However, I
lugged this money home to my cave, as I had
done that before, which I had brought from our own ship.
But it was a great pity as I said that
(37:08):
the other part of this ship had not come to
my share, for I am satisfied. I might have loaded
my canoe several times over with money, and thought, if
I ever escaped to England, it might lie here safe
enough till I come again and fetch it. End of
(37:29):
Chapter thirteen.
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