Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Chapter 3 – Wrecked on a Desert Island

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dream Audiobooks present Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Chapter three,
Wrecked on a desert island.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
After the stop, we made on to the southward continually
for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions,
which began to abate very much, and going no oftener
to the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water.
My design in this was to make the river Gambia

(00:37):
or Senegal, that is to say, anywhere about the Cape
de Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with
some European ship. And if I did not, I knew
not what course I had to take, but to seek
for the islands or perish there among the Negroes. I
knew that all the ships from Europe which sailed either

(01:00):
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

(01:21):
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 that they were quite black and naked.
I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them,

(01:42):
but Shui was my better counselor, and said to me,
no go, no go. However, I hauled in nearer the
shore that I might to talk to them, and I
found that they ran along the shore by me a
good way. I observed that they had no weapons in
their hand, except one which had a long slender stick,

(02:06):
which Shurry said was a lance, and that they could
target them a great way with good aim. So I
kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs
as well as I could, and particularly made signs for
something to eat. They beckoned me stop my boat and
they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered

(02:30):
the top of my sail and lay by, and two
of them ran up into the country, and unless then
half an hour came back and brought with them two
pieces of dried flesh and some corn, such as is
the produce of their country. But we neither knew what
the one or the other was. However, we were willing

(02:50):
to accept it, but how to come at it was
our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore
to them, and they were as much afraid of us.
But they took a safe way for us all for
they brought it to the shore and laid it down,
and went and stood a great way off till we
fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.

(03:14):
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
lined 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

(03:37):
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 appeared but in the night, and
in the second place we found the people terribly frightened,

(03:59):
especially the women. The man that had the lance or
dart did not fly from them, but the rest did. However,
as the two creatures ran directly into the water. They
did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes,
but plunged themselves into the sea and swam about as
if they had come there for diversion. At last one

(04:21):
of them began to come nearer our boat than at
first I expected. But I lay ready for him, for
I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and
bade Shuy load both the others. As soon as he
came fairly within my reach, I fired and shot him
directly in the head. Immediately he sank down into the water,

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but rose instantly and plunged up and down as if
he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was.
He immediately made to the shore, but between the wound,
which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water,
he died just before he re the shore. It is

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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. And when they saw
the creature dead and sunk in the water, and that
I made signs to them to come to the shore,
they took heart and came and began to search for

(05:25):
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

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the negroes held up their hands with admiration to think
what it was. I had killed him with the other
creature frighted with the flash of fire and the noise
of the gun, swam on shore and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came. Nor could I,
at that distance know what it was. I found quickly

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the Negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature,
so I was willing to have them take it as
a favor 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

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readily than we could have done with a knife. They
offered me some of the flesh, which I declined pointing
out that I would give it to 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

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then made signs to them for some water, and held
out one of the jars to them, turning the bottom
upward to show that it was empty, and that I
wanted to have it filled. They immediately called to some
of their friends, and there came two women and brought
a great vessel made of earth and burnt as I
supposed in the sun. This they set down to me

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as before, and I sent surrey on shore on shore
with my jars and filled them all three the women
were as naked as the men. I was now furnished
with roots and corn such as it was, and water,
and leaving my friendly negroes, I made forward for about
eleven days more without offering to go near the shore,

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till I saw the land run out a great length
to 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.

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Then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that
this was the Cape de Verde, and those the islands
called from thence Cape to Verdet islands. However, they were
at a great distance, and I could not tell well
what I had best to do, for if I should
be taken with the fresh of wind, I might neither

(08:17):
reach one or other in this dilemma. As I was
very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and sat down,
surey having the helm, When on a sudden the boy
cried out, master Master a ship with a sail, and
the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking
it must be some of his master ships sent to

(08:39):
pursue us. But I knew we were far enough out
of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin and
immediately saw not only the ship, but that it was
a 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

(09:00):
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

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had crowded to the utmost and began to despair, they
it seemed, saw by the help of their glasses, that
it was some European boat, which they supposed must belong
to some ship that was lost. So they shortened sailed
to let me come up. I was encouraged with this,
and as I had my patron's ancient on board, I

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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
a three hours time I came up with them. They

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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 Salie. They then bade

(10:24):
me come on board, and very kindly took me in
and all my goods. It was an inexpressible joy to me,
which anyone will believe, that I was thus delivered as
I esteemed it, from such a miserable and hopeless condition
as I was in. And I immediately offered all I
had to the captain of the ship as a return

(10:46):
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. Then I would be glad to be saved myself,
and it may, one time or other be my lot

(11:06):
to be taken up in the same condition. Besides, said he,
when I carry you to the Brazils, so great away
from your own country, if I should take from you
what you have, you will be starved there. And then
I only take away that life I have given. No no,
says he signor inglese, mister Englishman, I will carry you

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thither in charity, and those things which help to buy
your subsistence there and your passage home again. As he
was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in
the performance to a tittle, For he ordered the semen
that none should touch anything that I had. Then he

(11:50):
took everything into his own possession and gave me back
an exact inventory of them, that I might have them,
even to my three earthen jars. To my boat. It
was a very good one, and that he saw and
told me he would buy it of me for his
ship's use, and asked me what I would have for it.

(12:11):
I told him he had been so generous to me
in everything that I could not offer to make any
price of the boat, but left it entirely to him,
upon which he told me he would give me a
note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight
for it at Brazil, and when it came there, if
anyone offered to give more, he would make it up.

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He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for
my boy Surey, which I was loath to take. Not
that I was unwilling to let the captain have him,
but I was very loath 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

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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
Surrey saying he was willing to go with him, I
let the captain have him. We had a very good
voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay
de Todos los Santos or All Saints Bay, in about

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twenty two days after and now I was once again
delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life.
And what to do next with myself I was to
consider the generous treatment the captain gave me. I can
never enough remember. He would take nothing of me for

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my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard skin
and forty for the lion skin which I had in
my boat, and caused everything I had in the ship
to be punctually delivered to me, and what I was
willing to sell he bought of me, such as the
case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece

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of the lumpum be 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,

(14:19):
who had an inhanio, 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 license to settle there,

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I would turn planter among them. Resolving in the meantime
to find out some way to get my money, which
I had left in London remitted to me to this purpose,
getting a kind of letter of naturalization. I purchased as
much land that was uncured as my MI money would reach,

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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 neighbor of Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of English parents,
whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances as

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I was, I called him my neighbor, because his plantation
lay next to mine, and as we went on very
sociably together, My stock was but low as well as his,
and we rather planted for food than anything else. For
about two years, however, we began to increase in our

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land began to come into order, so that the third
year we planted some tobacco and made each of us
a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in
the year to come. But we both wanted help, and
now I found more than before. I had done wrong
in parting with my boy, surely, But alas for me

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to do wrong that never did right, was no great wonder.
I hailed no remedy, but to go on. I had
got into an employment quite remote to my genius, and
directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for
which I forsook my father's house and broke through all
his good advice. Nay, I was coming into the very

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middle station or upper degree of low life, which my
father advised me to before, and which if I resolved
to go on with, I might as well have stayed
at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world
as I had done. And I used often to say
to myself, I could have done this as well in

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England among my friends, as I 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

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nobody to converse with but now and then this neighbor,
no work to be done but by the labor 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?

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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 true solitary life I reflected

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on in an island of mere desolation should be my lot,
who had so often unjustly pared 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

(18:12):
in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on
the plantation. Before my kind friend, the captains of the
ship that took me up at sea went back for
the ship remained there in providing his lady and preparing
for his voyage nearly three months. When telling him what
little stock I had left behind me in London, he

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gave me this friendly and sincere advice. Signor Inglese says
he for so he always called me, if you will
give me letters and a procuration informed to me with
orders to the person who has your money in London
to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as

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I shall direct, and in such goods as are proper
for this country, I will bring you the pro of them,
God willing at my return. But since human affairs are
all subject to changes and disasters, I would have you
give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which you
say is half your stock, and let the hazard be

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run for the first, so that if it comes 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

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I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I
had left my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain.
As he desired, I wrote the English captain's widow, a
full account of all my adventures, my slavery escape, and
now I had met with the Portuguese captain at sea,

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and the humanity of his behavior, and what condition I
would now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply.
And when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found
means by some English merchants there to send over not
the order only, but a full account of my story
to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to her.

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Whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of
her own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very handsome
present for his humanity and charity to me. The merchant
in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods such
as the captain had written for, sent them directly to
him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to

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me to the brazils, among which without my direction, for
I was too young in my business to think of them,
he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, ironwork,
and utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were of
great used to me. When this cargo arrived, I thought

(21:04):
my fortune made, for I was surprised with the joy
of it, and my stood steward. The captain had laid
out the five pounds which my friend had sent him
for a present for himself to purchase and bring me
over a servant under bond for six years service, and
would not accept of any consideration except a little tobacco,

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which I would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all all my goods, being all English manufacturers,
such as cloths, stuffs, bays, 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

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I had more than four times the value of my
first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor.
I mean, in the advantsement of my plantation. For the
first thing I did. I bought me a Negro slave
and an European servant. Also, I mean another one besides
that which the captain brought me from Lisbon. But as abused,

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prosperity is sometimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.
So it was with me. I went on the next
year with great success in my plantation. I raised fifty
great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than
I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors. And
these fifty roles, being each of above a hundredweight, were

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well cured and laid by Against the return of the
fleet from Lisbon, and, now increasing in business and wealth,
my head began to be full of prospects 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

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all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life,
and of which he had so sensibly described the middle
station of life to be full of. But other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful
agent of all my own miseries, and particularly to increase

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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 obstinates, adhering to
my foolish inclination of wandering about and pursuing that inclination

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in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good,
in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and
those measures of life which nature and Providence concurred to
present me with, and to make my duty, as I
had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents.

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So I could not be content now. But I must
go and leave the happy view I had of being
a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only
to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster
than the nature of the thing admitted. And thus I
cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human

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misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be
consistent with life and a state of health in the
world to come. Then, by the just degrees to the
particulars of this part of my story, you may suppose that,
having now lived almost four years in the Brazils, and

(24:51):
beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation,
I had not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters, well as among
the merchants of Saint 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

(25:12):
of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes there,
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast
for trifles such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits
of glass and the like, not only gold dust, guinea grains,
elephant teeth, etc. But negroes for the service of the

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Brazils in great numbers. They listened always very attentively to
my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part
which related to the buying of negroes, which was a
trade at that time not only not far entered into,
but as far as it was, had been carried on

(25:56):
by ascientos or permission of the King of Spain and Portugal,
and engrossed in the public stock, so that few negroes
were bought in these excessively. Dear it happened being in
company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, and
talking of those things very earnestly, three of them came

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to me next morning and told me they had been
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them
of the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me, And after enjoining me to secrecy,
they told me they had a mind to fit out
a ship to go to Guinea, that they had all

(26:41):
plantations as well as I, and were straightened for nothing
so much as servants. That because 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.

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And in a word, the question was whether I would
go their supercargo in the ship to manage the trading
part upon the coast of Guinea. And they offered me
that I should have my equal share of the negroes
without providing any part of the stock. This was a

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fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to anyone that had not had a settlement and a
plantation of his own to look after, which was in
a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and
with a good stock upon it. But for me that
was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do
but to go on as I had begun for three

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or four more years, and to have sent for the
other one 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 and pounds sterling, and
that increasing too for me to think of such a
voyage was the most preposterous thing that ever man in

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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
from my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In
a word. I told them I would go with all

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

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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 to 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

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up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence
to have looked into my own interest and have made
a judgment of what I ought to have done and
not to have done, I had certainly never gone away
from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views
of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea,

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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

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things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage.
I went on board in an evil hour, the first
September sixteen fifty nine, 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

(30:19):
the fool to my own interests. 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 for
such toys as were fit for trade with the Negroes,

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such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and other trifles,
especially little looking glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board, we set sail
standing away to the northward upon our own coast, with
design to stretch over for the Afort coast. When we

(31:01):
came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which
it seems was the manner of course in those days,
we had very good weather, only excessively hot, all the
way upon our own coast till we came to the
height of Cape San Augustino, from whence, keeping further off

(31:23):
at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as
if we were bound for the Isle Fernando de Noronha,
holding our course northeast by north and leaving those isles
on the east. In this course we passed the line
in about twelve days time, and were, by our last

(31:45):
observation in seven degrees twenty two minutes northern latitude, when
a violin tornado or hurricane took us quite out of
our knowledge. It began from the southeast, came about to
the northwest, and then settled in the northeast. From whence
it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve

(32:06):
days together we could do nothing but drive and scudding
away before it let it carry us, whether 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.

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Besides the terror of the storm, one of our men
die of the calender, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,
the master made an observation as well as he could,
and found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude,

(32:50):
but that he was twenty two degrees of longitude difference
west from Cape Saint Augustino, so that he found he
was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part
of Brazil, beyond the River Amazon, toward that of the
River Orinoco, commonly called the Great River, and began to

(33:12):
consult with me what course he should take, for the
ship was leaky and very much disabled, and he was
going directly back to the coast of Brazil. I was
positively against that, and looking over the charts of the
sea coast of America with him, we concluded there was
no inhabited country for us to have recourse to till

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we came within the circle of the Caribbee Islands, and
therefore resolved to stand away for Barbados, which, by keeping
off at sea to avoid the draft of the Bay
or Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we
hoped in about fifteen days sail, whereas we could not

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possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa without
some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves. With
this design, we changed our course and steered away northwest
by west in order to reach some of our English islands,
where I hoped for relief. But our voyage was otherwise determined.

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For being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes,
a second storm came upon us, which carried us away
with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out
of the way of all human commerce, that had all
our lives been saved as to the sea, we were
rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever

(34:37):
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 and in
hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were. Than

(34:57):
the ship struck upon a sand 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 to our close
quarters to shelter us from the very foam and spray
of the sea. It is not easy for anyone who

(35:19):
has not been in the like condition to describe or
conceive the consternation of men. In such circumstances. We knew
nothing where we were, or upon what land it was
we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether
inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the wind
was still great, though rather less than at first, we

(35:42):
could not so much as hope to have the ship
hold many minutes without breaking into pieces, unless the winds,
by a kind of miracles, should turn immediately about. In
a word, we sat looking upon one another and expecting
death every moment, and every man accordingly preparing for another world.

(36:04):
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

(36:26):
that the wind did a little abate. Yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand and striking too fast
and sticking 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

(36:47):
just before the storm, but she was first staved by
dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the second 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

(37:08):
was no time to debate, for we fancied that the
ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told
us she was actually broken already. In this distress, the
mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and
with the help of the rest of the men, got
her slung over the ship's side. In getting all into her,

(37:28):
let go and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to
God's mercy and the wild sea. And though the storm
was abated considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon
the shore, and might be well called denviled z, as
the Dutch called the sea in a storm. And now

(37:50):
our case was very dismal, indeed, for we all saw
plainly that the sea went so high that the boat
could not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned.
As to making sail, we had none, nor if we had,
could we have done anything with it. So we worked
at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts

(38:11):
like men going to execution, For we all knew that
when the boat came near the shore, she would be
dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. However,
we committed our souls to God in the most earnest manner,
and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened
our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as

(38:32):
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 at least some
shadow of expectation was if we might find some bay
or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by

(38:55):
great chance we might have run our boat in or
got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made
smooth water. But there was nothing like this appeared. But
as we lay 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

(39:17):
we reckoned it, a raging wave mountain like came rolling
astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coupdi
gras it took us with such a fury that it
overset the boat at once, and separating us as well
from the boat as from one another, gave us no
time to say, Oh God, for we were all swallowed

(39:41):
up in a moment. Nothing can describe the confusion of
thought which I felt when I sank into the water,
For though I swam very well, yet I could not
deliver myself from the waves so as to draw a breath,
till that wave, having driven me, or rather carried me
a vast way on towards the shore, having spent itself,

(40:02):
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, seen myself nearer the mainland than I expected,
I got upon my feet and endeavored to make on
towards the land as fast as I could before another
wave should return and take me up again. But I

(40:24):
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,

(40:49):
my greatest concern now being that the sea, as it
would carry me a great way towards the shore when
it came on, might not carry me back again with
it when it gave back towards the sea. The wave
that came upon me again buried me at once twenty
or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I
could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness

(41:11):
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

(41:32):
shoot out of 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

(41:53):
the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I
stood still a few moments to recur, covered breath and
till the waters went from me, and then took to
my heels and ran with what strength I had further
towards the shore. But neither would this deliver me from
the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me.

(42:14):
And twice more I was lifted up by the waves
and carried forward as before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well nigh been
fatal to me, for the sea, having hurried me along
as before, landed me, or rather dashed me against a
piece of rock, and that was such force that it

(42:37):
left me senseless and indeed helpless as to my own deliverance.
For the blow taking my side and breast beat the
breath as it were quite out of my body, and
had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled
in the water. But I recovered a little before the
return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered

(42:57):
again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by
a piece of the rock, and so to hold my
breath if possible, till the wave went back. Now as
the waves were not so high as at first. Being
nearer land, I held my hold till the wave abated,
and then fetched another run, which brought me so near

(43:18):
the shore that the next wave, though it went over me,
yet did not so swallow me up as to carry
me away. And the next run I took I got
to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered
up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down
upon the grass, free from danger. And I was now
landed and safe on shore, and began to look up

(43:41):
and thank God that my life was saved in a
case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room
to hope. I believe it is impossible to express to
the life what the ecstasies and transports of the soul
are when it is so safe, as I may say,

(44:01):
out of the very grave. I do not wonder now
at the custom when a malefactor who has the halter
around 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

(44:23):
they tell him of it, that the surprise may not
drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him,
for sudden joys like griefs confound. At first, I walked
about on the shore, lifting up my hands and my
whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in a

(44:44):
contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures and motions
which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my comrades that
were drowned, and that there should be not one soul
saved but myself. For as for them, I never saw
them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of

(45:07):
their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when the
breech and froth of the sea beings so big I
could hardly see it it lay so far off, and considered, Lord,

(45:28):
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 around me to see
what kind of place I was in and what was
next to be done. And I soon found my comforts
a bait, and that, in a word, I had a

(45:49):
dreadful deliverance, for I was wet had no clothes to
shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to
comfort me. Neither did I see any prospect before me
but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by
wild beasts. And that which was particularly afflicting to me
was that I had no weapon, either to hunt and

(46:12):
kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself
against any other creature that might desire to kill me
for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me
but a knife, a tobacco pipe, and a little tobacco
in a box. This was all my provisions, And this

(46:33):
threw me into such terrible agonies of mind that for
a while I ran about like a madman. Night coming
upon me, I began with a heavy heart to consider
what would be my lot if there were any ravenous
beasts in that country, as at night they always come
abroad for their prey. All the remedy that offered to

(46:56):
my thoughts at that time was to get up into
a thick bushy tree, like a fur but thorny, which
grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all
night and consider the next day what death I should die.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
For.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
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, endeavored to

(47:33):
place myself so that if I should sleep, I might
not fall. And having cut me a short stick like
a trencheon for my defense, 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

(47:55):
in my condition, and found myself more refreshed with it.
And then I think I ever was on such an occasion.
End of Chapter three