parted into branches. It was not without infinite labour that
I felled this tree; I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it
at the bottom; I was fourteen more getting the branches and
limbs and the vast spreading head cut off, which I hacked
and hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressible
labour; after this, it cost me a month to shape it and dub it
to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat,
that it might swim upright as it ought to do. It cost me near
three months more to clear the inside, and work it out so as
to make an exact boat of it; this I did, indeed, without fire,
by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour,
till I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and
big enough to have carried six-and-twenty men, and conse-
quently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo.
When I had gone through this work I was extremely de-
lighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than ever
I saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in
my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure;
and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question, but
I should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most un-
likely to be performed, that ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me;
though they cost me infinite labour too. It lay about one
hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first
inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek. Well,
to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the
surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this I began,
and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains (but who grudge
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pains who have their deliverance in view?); but when this
was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was
still much the same, for I could no more stir the canoe
than I could the other boat. Then I measured the distance
of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the
water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe
down to the water. Well, I began this work; and when I be-
gan to enter upon it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug,
how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, I found that,
by the number of hands I had, being none but my own, it
must have been ten or twelve years before I could have gone
through with it; for the shore lay so high, that at the upper
end it must have been at least twenty feet deep; so at length,
though with great reluctancy, I gave this attempt over also.
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late,
the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and
before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through
with it.
In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in
this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion,
and with as much comfort as ever before; for, by a constant
study and serious application to the Word of God, and by
the assistance of His grace, I gained a different knowledge
from what I had before. I entertained different notions of
things. I looked now upon the world as a thing remote,
which I had nothing to do with, no expectations from, and,
indeed, no desires about: in a word, I had nothing indeed to
do with it, nor was ever likely to have, so I thought it looked,
as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter - viz. as a place I
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had lived in, but was come out of it; and well might I say, as
Father Abraham to Dives, ‘Between me and thee is a great
gulf fixed.’
In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness
of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the
lusts of the eye, nor the pride of life. I had nothing to covet,
for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying; I was lord
of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I might call myself king
or emperor over the whole country which I had possession
of: there were no rivals; I had no competitor, none to dis-
pute sovereignty or command with me: I might have raised
ship-loadings of corn, but I had no use for it; so I let as little
grow as I thought enough for my occasion. I had tortoise
or turtle enough, but now and then one was as much as I
could put to any use: I had timber enough to have built a
fleet of ships; and I had grapes enough to have made wine,
or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when
it had been built.
But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I
had enough to eat and supply my wants, and what was all
the rest to me? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog
must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could eat,
it must be spoiled; the trees that I cut down were lying to rot
on the ground; I could make no more use of them but for
fuel, and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated
to me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this
world are no farther good to us than they are for our use;
and that, whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy
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just as much as we can use, and no more. The most covet-
ous, griping miser in the world would have been cured of
the vice of covetousness if he had been in my case; for I pos-
sessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with. I had
no room for desire, except it was of things which I had not,
and they were but trifles, though, indeed, of great use to me.
I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as
silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there the sor-
ry, useless stuff lay; I had no more manner of business for
it; and often thought with myself that I would have given a
handful of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes; or for a hand-mill
to grind my corn; nay, I would have given it all for a sixpen-
ny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or for a
handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. As it was, I
had not the least advantage by it or benefit from it; but there
it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the
cave in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of
diamonds, it had been the same case - they had been of no
manner of value to me, because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in it-
self than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well
as to my body. I frequently sat down to meat with thank-
fulness, and admired the hand of God’s providence, which
had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I learned to
look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less
upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather
than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such se-
cret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take
notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of
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it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them,
because they see and covet something that He has not given
them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to
me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we
have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless
would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as
mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition
with what I at first expected it would be; nay, with what it
would certainly have been, if the good providence of God
had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer
to the shore, where I not only could come at her, but could
bring what I got out of her to the shore, for my relief and
comfort; without which, I had wanted for tools to work,
weapons for defence, and gunpowder and shot for getting
my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in represent-
ing to myself, in the most lively colours, how I must have
acted if I had got nothing out of the ship. How I could not
have so much as got any food, except fish and turtles; and
that, as it was long before I found any of them, I must have
perished first; that I should have lived, if I had not perished,
like a mere savage; that if I had killed a goat or a fowl, by any
contrivance, I had no way to flay or open it, or part the flesh
from the skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw
it with my teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness
of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present con-
dition, with all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part
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also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who
are apt, in their misery, to say, ‘Is any affliction like mine?’
Let them consider how much worse the cases of some peo-
ple are, and their case might have been, if Providence had
thought fit.
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to com-
fort my mind with hopes; and this was comparing my
present situation with what I had deserved, and had there-
fore reason to expect from the hand of Providence. I had
lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge
and fear of God. I had been well instructed by father and
mother; neither had they been wanting to me in their early
endeavours to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind,
a sense of my duty, and what the nature and end of my be-
ing required of me. But, alas! falling early into the seafaring
life, which of all lives is the most destitute of the fear of
God, though His terrors are always before them; I say, fall-
ing early into the seafaring life, and into seafaring company,
all that little sense of religion which I had entertained was
laughed out of me by my messmates; by a hardened despis-
ing of dangers, and the views of death, which grew habitual
to me by my long absence from all manner of opportunities
to converse with anything but what was like myself, or to
hear anything that was good or tended towards it.
So void was I of everything that was good, or the least
sense of what I was, or was to be, that, in the greatest deliv-
erances I enjoyed - such as my escape from Sallee; my being
taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship; my being
planted so well in the Brazils; my receiving the cargo from
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England, and the like - I never had once the words ‘Thank
God!’ so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the
greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray to Him,
or so much as to say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me!’ no, nor
to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by, and
blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months,
as I have already observed, on account of my wicked and
hardened life past; and when I looked about me, and con-
sidered what particular providences had attended me since
my coming into this place, and how God had dealt boun-
tifully with me - had not only punished me less than my
iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for
me - this gave me great hopes that my repentance was ac-
cepted, and that God had yet mercy in store for me.
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to
a resignation to the will of God in the present disposition
of my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for
my condition; and that I, who was yet a living man, ought
not to complain, seeing I had not the due punishment of my
sins; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason
to have expected in that place; that I ought never more to re-
pine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks
for that daily bread, which nothing but a crowd of wonders
could have brought; that I ought to consider I had been fed
even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding Elijah by
ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I could
hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the
world where I could have been cast more to my advantage;
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a place where, as I had no society, which was my affliction
on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts, no furious
wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous creatures,
or poisons, which I might feed on to my hurt; no savages
to murder and devour me. In a word, as my life was a life
of sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and I
wanted nothing to make it a life of comfort but to be able to
make my sense of God’s goodness to me, and care over me
in this condition, be my daily consolation; and after I did
make a just improvement on these things, I went away, and
was no more sad. I had now been here so long that many
things which I had brought on shore for my help were either
quite gone, or very much wasted and near spent.
My ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but
a very little, which I eked out with water, a little and a lit-
tle, till it was so pale, it scarce left any appearance of black
upon the paper. As long as it lasted I made use of it to min-
ute down the days of the month on which any remarkable
thing happened to me; and first, by casting up times past, I
remembered that there was a strange concurrence of days
in the various providences which befell me, and which, if
I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal
or fortunate, I might have had reason to have looked upon
with a great deal of curiosity.
First, I had observed that the same day that I broke away
from my father and friends and ran away to Hull, in order
to go to sea, the same day afterwards I was taken by the Sal-
lee man-of-war, and made a slave; the same day of the year
that I escaped out of the wreck of that ship in Yarmouth
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Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made my escape
from Sallee in a boat; the same day of the year I was born on
- viz. the 30th of September, that same day I had my life so
miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast
on shore in this island; so that my wicked life and my soli-
tary life began both on a day.
The next thing to my ink being wasted was that of my
bread - I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship;
this I had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but
one cake of bread a-day for above a year; and yet I was quite
without bread for near a year before I got any corn of my
own, and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at
all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next
to miraculous.
My clothes, too, began to decay; as to linen, I had had
none a good while, except some chequered shirts which I
found in the chests of the other seamen, and which I care-
fully preserved; because many times I could bear no other
clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to me that
I had, among all the men’s clothes of the ship, almost three
dozen of shirts. There were also, indeed, several thick watch-
coats of the seamen’s which were left, but they were too hot
to wear; and though it is true that the weather was so vio-
lently hot that there was no need of clothes, yet I could not
go quite naked - no, though I had been inclined to it, which
I was not - nor could I abide the thought of it, though I was
alone. The reason why I could not go naked was, I could not
bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with
some clothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my
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skin: whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some mo-
tion, and whistling under the shirt, was twofold cooler than
without it. No more could I ever bring myself to go out in
the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun,
beating with such violence as it does in that place, would
give me the headache presently, by darting so directly on
my head, without a cap or hat on, so that I could not bear it;
whereas, if I put on my hat it would presently go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the
few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I
had worn out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was
now to try if I could not make jackets out of the great watch-
coats which I had by me, and with such other materials as I
had; so I set to work, tailoring, or rather, indeed, botching,
for I made most piteous work of it. However, I made shift
to make two or three new waistcoats, which I hoped would
serve me a great while: as for breeches or drawers, I made
but a very sorry shift indeed till afterwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the crea-
tures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had them
hung up, stretched out with sticks in the sun, by which
means some of them were so dry and hard that they were fit
for little, but others were very useful. The first thing I made
of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the
outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so well,
that after I made me a suit of clothes wholly of these skins
- that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees,
and both loose, for they were rather wanting to keep me
cool than to keep me warm. I must not omit to acknowledge
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that they were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpen-
ter, I was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I made
very good shift with, and when I was out, if it happened to
rain, the hair of my waistcoat and cap being outermost, I
was kept very dry.
After this, I spent a great deal of time and pains to make
an umbrella; I was, indeed, in great want of one, and had a
great mind to make one; I had seen them made in the Bra-
zils, where they are very useful in the great heats there, and
I felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, be-
ing nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be much
abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the
rains as the heats. I took a world of pains with it, and was
a great while before I could make anything likely to hold:
nay, after I had thought I had hit the way, I spoiled two or
three before I made one to my mind: but at last I made one
that answered indifferently well: the main difficulty I found
was to make it let down. I could make it spread, but if it did
not let down too, and draw in, it was not portable for me
any way but just over my head, which would not do. How-
ever, at last, as I said, I made one to answer, and covered it
with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like
a pent-house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could
walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advan-
tage than I could before in the coolest, and when I had no
need of it could close it, and carry it under my arm
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entire-
ly composed by resigning myself to the will of God, and
throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of His provi-
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dence. This made my life better than sociable, for when I
began to regret the want of conversation I would ask myself,
whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts,
and (as I hope I may say) with even God Himself, by ejacu-
lations, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human
society in the world?
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CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS
I CANNOT say that after this, for five years, any extraor-
dinary thing happened to me, but I lived on in the same
course, in the same posture and place, as before; the chief
things I was employed in, besides my yearly labour of plant-
ing my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both which
I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of one
year’s provisions beforehand; I say, besides this yearly la-
bour, and my daily pursuit of going out with my gun, I had
one labour, to make a canoe, which at last I finished: so that,
by digging a canal to it of six feet wide and four feet deep, I
brought it into the creek, almost half a mile. As for the first,
which was so vastly big, for I made it without considering
beforehand, as I ought to have done, how I should be able to
launch it, so, never being able to bring it into the water, or
bring the water to it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was as
a memorandum to teach me to be wiser the next time: in-
deed, the next time, though I could not get a tree proper for
it, and was in a place where I could not get the water to it at
any less distance than, as I have said, near half a mile, yet,
as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave it over; and
though I was near two years about it, yet I never grudged
my labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the
size of it was not at all answerable to the design which I had
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in view when I made the first; I mean of venturing over to
the TERRA FIRMA, where it was above forty miles broad;
accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put an end
to that design, and now I thought no more of it. As I had a
boat, my next design was to make a cruise round the island;
for as I had been on the other side in one place, crossing, as
I have already described it, over the land, so the discoveries
I made in that little journey made me very eager to see other
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