Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Chapter 11 – Finds Print of Mans Foot on the Sand

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California,
Winter two thousand and six. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe,

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Chapter eleven, fines print of man's foot on the sand.
It would have made a stoic smile to have seen
me and my little family sit down to dinner. There
was my majesty, the Prince and Lord of the whole island.

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I had the lives of all my subjects at my
absolute command. I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take
it away, and no rebels among all my subjects. Then
to see how like a king I dined too, all alone,
attended by my servants. Paul, as if he had been

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my favorite, was the only person permitted to talk to me.
My dog, who was now grown old and crazy and
had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat
always at my right hand, and two cats, one on
one side of the table and one on the other,

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expecting now and then a bit from my hand as
a mark of special favor. But these were not the
two cats, which I brought on shore at first, for
they were both of them dead, and had been interred
near my habitation by my own hand. But one of them,
having multiplied by I know not what kind of creature.

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There were two which I had preserved tame, and whereas
the rest ran wild in the woods and became indeed
troublesome to me at last, for they would often come
into my house and plunder me too, till at last
I was obliged to shoot them, and did kill a
great many. At length they left me with this attendance,

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and in this plentiful manner I lived. Neither could I
be said to want anything but society, and of that
some time after this I was likely to have too much.
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have
the use of my boat, though very loath to run

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any more hazards. And therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways
to get her about the island. And at other times
I sat myself down, contented enough without her. But I
had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down
to the point of the island. Where As I have
said in my last ramble, I went up the hill

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to see how the shore lay, and how the current
set that I might see what I had to do.
This inclination increased upon me every day, and at length
I resolved to travel thither by land, following the edge
of the shore. I did so. But had anyone in
England met such a man as I was, it must

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either have frightened him or raised a great deal of laughter.
And as I frequently stood still to look at myself,
I could not but smile at the notion of my
traveling through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such
a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my

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figure as follows. I had a great, high, shapeless cap
made of a goat skin, with a flap hanging down behind,
as well to keep the sun from me as to
shoot the rain off from running into my neck, nothing
being hurtful in these climates, as the rain might be
upon the flesh under the clothes. I had a short

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jacket of goat skin, the skirts coming down to about
the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open
kneed breeches of the same. The breeches were made of
the skin of an old he goat whose hair hung
down such a length on either side, that like pantaloons
it reached to the middle of my legs. Stockings and

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shoes I had none, but had made me a pair
of somethings I scarce know what to call them, like buskins,
to flap over my legs, and lace on either side
like spatter dashes, but of a most barberous shape, as
indeed were all the rest of my clothes. I had
on a broad belt of goat skin dried, which I

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knew how to draw, together with two thongs of the
same instead of buckles, and in a kind of a frog.
On either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger,
hung a little saw in a hatchet, one on one
side and one on the other. I had another belt,
not so broad, and fastened it in the same manner,

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which hung over my shoulder, and at the end of it,
under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of
goat's skin, too, in one of which hung my powder,
and in the other my shot. At my back I
carried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and
over my head a great, clumsy, ugly goat's skin umbrella,

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but which after all was the most necessary thing I
had about me next to my gun. As for my face,
the color of it was really not so mulatto like
as one might expect from a man not at all
careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees
of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to

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grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long,
But as I had both scissors and razors sufficient, I
had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my
upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair
of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by
some Turks at Sali. For the Moors did not wear such,

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though the Turks did. Of these mustachios or whiskers, I
will not say they were long enough to hang my
hat upon them, but they were of a length and
shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would have
passed for frightful. But all this is by the bye,

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for as to my figure, I had so few to
observe me that it was of no manner of consequence.
So I say no more of that in this kind
of dress, I went my new journey and was out
five or six days. I traveled first along the seashore
directly to the place where I first brought my boat

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to an anchor to get upon the rocks, And having
no boat now to take care of, I went over
the land a nearer way, of the same height that
I was upon before. When looking forward to the points
of the rocks which lay out, and which I was
obliged to double with my boat, as is said above,

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I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet,
no rippling, no motion, no current any more than in
other places. I was at a strange loss to understand this,
and resolved to spend some time in the observing of it,
to see if nothing from the sets of the tide

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had occasioned it. But I was presently convinced how it was.
That is that the tide of Ebb, setting from the
west and joining with the current of waters from some
great river on the shore, must be the occasion for
this current, and that according as the wind blew more

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forcibly from the west or from the north, this current
came nearer or went farther from the shore. For waiting
thereabouts till evening I went up to the rock again,
and then the tide of Ebb being made I plainly
saw the current again as before, only that it ran
farther off, being near half a league from the shore,

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whereas in my case it set close upon the shore
and hurried me and my canoe along with it, which
at another time it would not have done. This observation
convinced me that I had nothing to do but to
observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and
I I might very easily bring my boat about the
island again. But when I began to think of putting

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it in practice, I had such a terror upon my
spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had been
in that I could not think of it again with
any patience. But on the contrary, I took up another resolution,
which was more safe, though more laborious, And this was
that I would build, or rather make me another periagua

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or canoe, and so have one for one side of
the island and one for the other. You are to
understand that now I had, as I may call it,
two plantations in the island. One my little fortification or
tent with the wall about it under the rock, with
the cave behind me, which by this time I had

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enlarged into several apartments, or caves, one within another. One
of these, which was the driest and largest, had a
door out beyond my wall or fortification, that is to say,
beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all
filled up with the large earthen pots of which I

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have given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets,
which would hold five or six bushels each. Where I
laid up my stores of provisions, especially my corn, some
in the air cut off short from the straw, and
the other rubbed out with my hand. As for my wall,

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made as before with long steaks or piles, these piles
grew all like trees, and were by this time grown
so big and spread so very much, that there was
not the least appearance to anyone's view of any habitation
behind them near this dwelling of mine. But a little
farther within the land and upon lower ground, lay my

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two pieces of corn land, which I kept duly cultivated
and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in
its season. And whenever I had occasion for more corn,
I had more land adjoining as fit as that. Besides this,
I now had my country seat, and I had now

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a tolerable plantation. There also, For first, I had my
little bower, as I called it, which I kept in repair,
that is to say, I kept the hedge which encircled it,
constantly fitted up to its usual height, the latter always
standing on the inside. I kept the trees, which at

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first were no more than steaks, but were now grown
very firm and tall, always cut so that they might
spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more
agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In
the middle of this, I had my tent, always standing,

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being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set
up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair
or renewing. And under this I made me a squab
or couch with the skins of the creatures I had killed,
and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them,
such as belonged to our sea bedding, which I had

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saved in a great watchcoat to cover me. And here,
whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat,
I took up my country habitation. Adjoining to this, I
had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say,
my goats, and I had taken an inconceivable deal of

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pains to fence and enclose this ground. I was so
anxious to see it kept entire lest the goats should
break through, that I never left off till with infinite labor,
I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full
of small steaks, and so nearer one to another, that
it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there

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was scarce room to put a hand through between them,
which afterwards, when these steaks grew, as they all did
in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like
a wall, indeed stronger than any wall. This will testify
for me that I was not idle, and that I

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spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary
for my comfortable support. For I considered the keeping up
a breed of tame creatures. Thus at my hand would
be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese
for me as long as I lived in the place,
if it were to be forty years, And that keeping

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them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my
enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure
of keeping them together, which by this method indeed I
so effectually secured that when these little steaks began to grow,
I had planted them so very thick that I was

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forced to pull some of them up again. In this place,
also I had my grapes growing, which I principally depended
on for my winter store of raisins, and which I
never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and
most agreeable dainty of my whole diet. And indeed they
were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome, nourishing and refreshing

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to the last degree. As this was about halfway between
my other habitation and the place where I had laid
up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in
my way thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat,
and I kept all things about or belonging to her,
in very good order. Sometimes I went out in her

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to divert myself, but no more has voyages would I
go scarcely, ever, above a stone's cast or two from
the shore. I was so apprehensive of being hurried out
of my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or
any other accident. But now I come to a new
scene of my life. It happened one day about noon,

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going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the
print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which
was very plain to be seen in the sand. I
stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen
an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I

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could hear nothing nor see anything. I went up to
a rising ground to look farther. I went up the
shore and down the shore, but it was all one.
I could see no other impression but that one. I
went to it again to see if there were any more,

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and to observe if it might not be my fancy.
But there was no room for that, for there was
exactly the print of a foot toes heel, and every
part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not,
nor could I in the least imagine. But after innumerable

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fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself,
I came home to my fortification. Not feeling, as we say,
the ground. I went on, but terrified to the last degree,
looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking

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every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a
distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to
describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things
to me, how many wild ideas were found every moment
in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came into

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my thoughts. By the way, when I came to my castle,
for so I think I called it. Ever after this,
I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went
over by the latter as first contrived, or went in
at the hole in the rock which I had called
a door. I cannot remember no, nor could I remember

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the next morning, For never frightened hair fled to cover
or fox to earth with more terror of mind than
I to this retreat. I slept none that night. The
farther I was from the occasion of my fright the
greater my apprehensions were, which is something contrary to the

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nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice
of all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed
with my own frightful ideas of the thing that I
formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself, even though I
was now a great way off. Sometimes I fancied it

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must be the devil, and reason joined in with me
in this supposition. For how could any other thing in
human shape come into the place where was the vessel
that brought them? What marks were there of any other footstep?
And how was it possible a man should come there?

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But then to think that Satan should take human shape
upon him in such a place where there could be
no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the
print of his foot behind him, And that even for
no purpose, too, for he could not be sure I
should see it. This was an amusing. The other way,

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I considered that the devil might have found out abundance
of other ways to have terrified me than this of
the single print of a foot, that, as I lived
quite on the other side of the island, he would
never have been so simple as to leave a mark
in a place where it was ten thousand to one
whether I should ever see it or not, And in

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the sand, too, which the first surge of the sea
upon a high wind would have defaced entirely. All this
seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the
notions that we usually entertain of the subtlety of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me

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out of all apprehensions of its being the devil. And
I presently concluded then that it must be some more
dangerous creature, that is, that it must be some of
the savages of the mainland opposite, who had won out
to sea in their canoes, and, either driven by the
currents or by contrary winds, had made the island and

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had been on shore, but were now gone away to see,
being as loath perhaps to have stayed in this desolate
island as I would have been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was
very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy
as not to be thereabouts at that time, or that

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they did not see my boat, by which they would
have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place,
and perhaps have searched farther from me. Then terrible thoughts
racked my imagination about their having found out my boat,
and that there were people here, and that if so,

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I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers
and devour me. That if it should happen that they
should not find me, yet they would find my enclosure,
destroy all my corn, and carry away all my flock
of tame goats, and I should perish at last for
mere want. Thus my fear banished all my religious hope,

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all that former confidence in God which was founded upon
such wonderful experience as I had had of his goodness.
As if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto
could not preserve by his power the provision which he
had made for me by his goodness, I reproached myself

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with my laziness, that would not sow any more corn
one year than would just serve me till the next season,
as if no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying
the crop that was upon the ground. And this I
thought so just a reproof that I resolved for the
future to have two or three years corn beforehand, so

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that whatever might come I might not pairsh for want
of bread. A strange a checker work of providence is
the life of a man. And by what secret different
springs are the affections hurried about as different circumstances present.
Today we love what tomorrow we hate. Today, we seek

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what tomorrow we shun. Today we desire what tomorrow we fear,
nay even tremble at The apprehensions of this was exemplified
in me at this time in the most lively manner
imaginable for I, whose only affliction was that I seemed
banished from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by

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the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to
what I call silent life. That I was as one
whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered among the living,
or to appear among the rest of his creatures. That
to have seen one of my own species would have

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seemed to me a raising me from death to life,
and the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the
supreme blessing of salvation could bestow. I say that I
should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man,
and was ready to sink into the ground at but

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the shadow or silent appearance of a man having set
his foot in the island. Such is the uneven state
of human life, and it afforded me a great many
curious speculations. Afterwards, when I had a little recovered my
first surprise, I considered that this was the station of life.

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The infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined
for me that, as I could not foresee what the
ends of wisdom might be in all this, so I
was not to dispute his sovereignty. Who, as I was,
his creature, had an undoubted right by creation to govern

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and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit, And who,
as I was, a creature that had offended him, had
likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment
he thought fit, And that it was my part to
bear his indignation because I had sinned against him. I

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then reflected that as God, who was not only righteous
but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me,
so he was able to deliver me, that if he
did not think fit to do so, it was my
unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his will.

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On the the other hand, it was my duty also
to hope in him, pray to him, and quietly to
attend to the dictates and directions of his daily providence.
These thoughts took up many hours of mine days, nay,
I may say weeks and months, And one particular effect

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of my cogitations on this occasion I cannot omit. One
morning early lying in my bed and filled with thoughts
about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found
it discomposed me very much, upon which these words of
the Scripture came into my thoughts. Call upon me in

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the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee and
thou shalt glorify me. Upon this, rising cheerfully out of
my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I
was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance.
When I had done praying, I took up my Bible,

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and opening it to read, the first words that presented
to me were, Wait on the Lord, and be of
good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say,
on the Lord. It is impossible to express the comfort
this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the

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book and was no more sad, at least on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it
came into my thoughts one day that all this might
be a mere chimera of my own, and that this
foot might be the print of my own foot. When

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I came on shore from my boat. This cheered me
up a little too, and I began to persuade myself
it was all a delusion, that it was nothing else
but my own foot, and why might I not come
that way from the boat as well as I was
going that way to the boat again. I considered also

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that I could by no means tell for certain where
I had trod and where I had not, and that
if at last this was the only print of my
own foot, I had played the part of those fools
who try to make stories of specters and apparitions and

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then are frightened at them more than anybody. Now I
began to take courage and to peep abroad again, for
I had not stirred out of my castle for three
days and nights, so that I began to starve for provisions,
for I had little or nothing with indoors, but some
barley cakes and water. Then I knew that my goats

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wanted to be milked, too, which usually was my evening,
and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience
for want of it, and indeed it almost spoiled some
of them and almost dried up their milk. Encouraging myself therefore,
with the belief that this was nothing but the print
of one of my own feet, and that I might

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be truly said to start at my own shadow. I
began to grow abroad again, and went to my country
house to milk my flock. But to see with what
fear I went forward, how often I looked behind me,
how I was ready every now and then to lay
down my basket and run for my life. It would
have made anyone have thought I was haunted with an

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evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frightened,
And so indeed I had. However, I went down thus
two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began
to be a little bolder, and to think there was
really nothing in it but my own imagine nation. But

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I could not persuade myself fully of this till I
should go down to the shore again and see this
print of a foot, and measure it by my own,
and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that
I might be assured that it was my own foot.
But when I came to the place first, it appeared

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evidently to me that when I laid up my boat,
I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts. Secondly,
when I came to measure the mark with my own foot,
I found my foot not so large by a great deal.
Both these things filled my head with new imaginations and

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gave me the vapors again to the highest degree, so
that I shook with cold like one in an ague.
And I went home again filled with the belief that
some man or men had been on shore there, or
in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might
be surprised before I was aware. And what course to

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take for my security? I knew not, oh, what ridiculous
resolutions men take when possessed with fear. It deprives them
of the use of those means which reason offers for
their relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was
to throw down my enclosures and turn all my tame

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cattle wild into the woods, lest the enemy should find them,
and then frequent the island in prospect of the same
or the like booty. Then the simple thing of digging
up my two corn fields, lest they should find such
a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the island.

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Then to demolish my bower and tent, that they might
not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to
look farther in order to find out the person's inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night's cogitations after
I was home again, while the apprehensions which had so

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overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and my head
was full of vapors. Thus fear of danger is ten
thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when apparent to
the eyes. And we find the burden of anxiety greater
by much than the evil which we are anxious about.

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And what was worse than all this, I had not
that relief in this trouble that from the resignation I
used to practice I hope to have. I looked. I
thought like Saul, who complained not only that the Philistines
were upon him, but that God had forsaken him. For
I did not now take due ways to compose my

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mind by crying to God in my distress and resting
upon his providence as I had done before for my
defense and deliverance, which if I had done, I had
at least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise,
and perhaps carried through it with more resolution. This confusion

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of my thoughts kept me awake all night. But in
the morning I fell asleep, and, having by the amusement
of my mind, been as it were, tired and my
spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly and waked much better
composed than I had ever been before. And now I

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began to think sedately, and upon debate with myself, I
concluded that this island, which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful,
and no farther from the mainland than as I had seen,
was not so entirely abandoned, as I might imagine. That
although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the

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spot yet, that there might sometimes come boats off from
the shore, who, either with design or perhaps never, but
when they were driven by crosswinds, might come to this place.
That I had lived there fifteen years now and not
met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet,

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and that if at any time they should be driven here,
it was probable they went away again as soon as
ever they could, seeing that they had never thought fit
to fix here upon any occasion. That the most I
could suggest any danger from was from any casual accidental

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landing of straggling people from the main who, as it
was likely if they were driven hither, were here against
their wills. So they made no stay here, but went
off again with all possible speed, seldom staying one night
on shore lest they should not have the help of

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the tides and daylight back again. And that therefore I
had nothing to do but to consider of some safe
retreat in case I should see any savages land upon
the spot. Now I began sorely to repent that I
had dug my cave so large as to bring a
door through again, which door, as I said, came out

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beyond where my fortification joined to the rock. Upon maturely
considering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification,
in the manner of a semicircle, at a distance from
my wall, just where I had planted a double row
of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mentioned.

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These trees having been planted so thick before, they wanted
but few piles to be driven between them, that they
might be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be
soon finished, So that I now had a double and
my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old
cables and everything I could think of to make it

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strong having in its seven little holes about as big
as I might put my arm out at In the
inside of this I thickened my wall to about ten
feet thick. With continually bringing earth out of my cave
and laying it at the foot of the wall, and
walking upon it and through the seven holes, I contrived

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to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that
I had got seven on shore out of the ship.
These I planted like my cannon, and I fitted them
into frames that held them like a carriage, so that
I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes time.
This wall I was many a weary month in finishing,

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and yet never thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without
my wall, for a great length everyway, as full with
steaks or sticks of the ossier like wood which I
had found so apt to grow, as they could well stand.
Insomuch that I believe I might set in near twenty

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thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them
and my wall, that I might have room to see
my enemy, and they might have no shelter from the
young trees if they attempted to approach my outer wall.
Thus in two years time I had a thick grove,
and in five or six years time I had a

(36:37):
wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrously thick and strong,
that it was indeed perfectly impassable, and no men of
what kindsoever could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it,
much less a habitation. As for the way which I
proposed to myself to go in and out, for I

(36:59):
left no avenue, it was by setting two ladders, one
to a part of the rock which was low, and
then broke in, and left room to place another ladder
upon that, so that when the two ladders were taken down,
no man living could come down to me without doing
himself mischief. And if they had come down, they were

(37:23):
still on the outside of my outer wall. Thus I
took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my
own preservation, and it will be seen at length that
they were not altogether without just reason, though I foresaw
nothing at that time more than my mere fear suggested

(37:48):
to me. End of Chapter eleven s