parts of the coast; and now I had a boat, I thought of noth-
ing but sailing round the island.
For this purpose, that I might do everything with discre-
tion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast in my boat,
and made a sail too out of some of the pieces of the ship’s
sails which lay in store, and of which I had a great stock by
me. Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I
found she would sail very well; then I made little lockers or
boxes at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessar-
ies, ammunition, &c., into, to be kept dry, either from rain
or the spray of the sea; and a little, long, hollow place I cut
in the inside of the boat, where I could lay my gun, making
a flap to hang down over it to keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in the step at the stern, like a
mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun
off me, like an awning; and thus I every now and then took
a little voyage upon the sea, but never went far out, nor far
from the little creek. At last, being eager to view the circum-
ference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my cruise;
and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting
in two dozen of loaves (cakes I should call them) of bar-
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ley-bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice (a food I ate
a good deal of), a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and pow-
der and shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats, of
those which, as I mentioned before, I had saved out of the
seamen’s chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and the other
to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my
reign - or my captivity, which you please - that I set out on
this voyage, and I found it much longer than I expected;
for though the island itself was not very large, yet when I
came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge of rocks lie
out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, some
under it; and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a
league more, so that I was obliged to go a great way out to
sea to double the point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over
my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far
it might oblige me to go out to sea; and above all, doubting
how I should get back again: so I came to an anchor; for I
had made a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken grap-
pling which I got out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went on
shore, climbing up a hill, which seemed to overlook that
point where I saw the full extent of it, and resolved to ven-
ture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I per-
ceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which
ran to the east, and even came close to the point; and I took
the more notice of it because I saw there might be some
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danger that when I came into it I might be carried out to
sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island
again; and indeed, had I not got first upon this hill, I believe
it would have been so; for there was the same current on the
other side the island, only that it set off at a further distance,
and I saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so I had
nothing to do but to get out of the first current, and I should
presently be in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing
pretty fresh at ESE., and that being just contrary to the cur-
rent, made a great breach of the sea upon the point: so that
it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the
breach, nor to go too far off, because of the stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abat-
ed overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a
warning to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was
I come to the point, when I was not even my boat’s length
from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of wa-
ter, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it carried my boat
along with it with such violence that all I could do could
not keep her so much as on the edge of it; but I found it hur-
ried me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was
on my left hand. There was no wind stirring to help me, and
all I could do with my paddles signified nothing: and now
I began to give myself over for lost; for as the current was
on both sides of the island, I knew in a few leagues distance
they must join again, and then I was irrecoverably gone; nor
did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no pros-
pect before me but of perishing, not by the sea, for that was
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calm enough, but of starving from hunger. I had, indeed,
found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as I could lift,
and had tossed it into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh
water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots; but what was
all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure,
there was no shore, no mainland or island, for a thousand
leagues at least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God
to make even the most miserable condition of mankind
worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate, solitary island
as the most pleasant place in the world and all the happi-
ness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. I
stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes - ‘O happy
desert!’ said I, ‘I shall never see thee more. O miserable crea-
ture! whither am going?’ Then I reproached myself with my
unthankful temper, and that I had repined at my solitary
condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there
again! Thus, we never see the true state of our condition till
it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to val-
ue what we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarcely possible
to imagine the consternation I was now in, being driven
from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now to be)
into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost
despair of ever recovering it again. However, I worked hard
till, indeed, my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my
boat as much to the northward, that is, towards the side of
the current which the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when
about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I felt
a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from SSE.
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This cheered my heart a little, and especially when, in about
half- an-hour more, it blew a pretty gentle gale. By this time
I had got at a frightful distance from the island, and had
the least cloudy or hazy weather intervened, I had been un-
done another way, too; for I had no compass on board, and
should never have known how to have steered towards the
island, if I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather con-
tinuing clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and
spread my sail, standing away to the north as much as pos-
sible, to get out of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to
stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of the water some
alteration of the current was near; for where the current
was so strong the water was foul; but perceiving the water
clear, I found the current abate; and presently I found to
the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some
rocks: these rocks I found caused the current to part again,
and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving
the rocks to the north-east, so the other returned by the re-
pulse of the rocks, and made a strong eddy, which ran back
again to the north-west, with a very sharp stream.
They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to
them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just go-
ing to murder them, or who have been in such extremities,
may guess what my present surprise of joy was, and how
gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the
wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, run-
ning cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or
eddy underfoot.
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This eddy carried me about a league on my way back
again, directly towards the island, but about two leagues
more to the northward than the current which carried me
away at first; so that when I came near the island, I found
myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the
other end of the island, opposite to that which I went out
from.
When I had made something more than a league of way
by the help of this current or eddy, I found it was spent, and
served me no further. However, I found that being between
two great currents - viz. that on the south side, which had
hurried me away, and that on the north, which lay about a
league on the other side; I say, between these two, in the
wake of the island, I found the water at least still, and run-
ning no way; and having still a breeze of wind fair for me, I
kept on steering directly for the island, though not making
such fresh way as I did before.
About four o’clock in the evening, being then within a
league of the island, I found the point of the rocks which oc-
casioned this disaster stretching out, as is described before,
to the southward, and casting off the current more south-
erly, had, of course, made another eddy to the north; and
this I found very strong, but not directly setting the way
my course lay, which was due west, but almost full north.
However, having a fresh gale, I stretched across this eddy,
slanting north-west; and in about an hour came within
about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth water, I
soon got to land.
When I was on shore, God I fell on my knees and gave
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God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all
thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing my-
self with such things as I had, I brought my boat close to the
shore, in a little cove that I had spied under some trees, and
laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour
and fatigue of the voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with
my boat! I had run so much hazard, and knew too much
of the case, to think of attempting it by the way I went out;
and what might be at the other side (I mean the west side)
I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures;
so I resolved on the next morning to make my way west-
ward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where
I might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again
if I wanted her. In about three miles or thereabouts, coast-
ing the shore, I came to a very good inlet or bay, about a
mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet
or brook, where I found a very convenient harbour for my
boat, and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock
made on purpose for her. Here I put in, and having stowed
my boat very safe, I went on shore to look about me, and see
where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where
I had been before, when I travelled on foot to that shore; so
taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and umbrella,
for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march. The way was
comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had been upon,
and I reached my old bower in the evening, where I found
everything standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good
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order, being, as I said before, my country house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest
my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge
you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise I must
be in when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling
me by my name several times, ‘Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe:
poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where
are you? Where have you been?’
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing,
or part of the day, and with walking the latter part, that I did
not wake thoroughly; but dozing thought I dreamed that
somebody spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat,
‘Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,’ at last I began to wake more
perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, and started
up in the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes
open, but I saw my Poll sitting on the top of the hedge; and
immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me; for just
in such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and
teach him; and he had learned it so perfectly that he would
sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face and cry,
‘Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been?
How came you here?’ and such things as I had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that
indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before
I could compose myself. First, I was amazed how the crea-
ture got thither; and then, how he should just keep about
the place, and nowhere else; but as I was well satisfied it
could be nobody but honest Poll, I got over it; and holding
out my hand, and calling him by his name, ‘Poll,’ the so-
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ciable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he
used to do, and continued talking to me, ‘Poor Robin Cru-
soe! and how did I come here? and where had I been?’ just
as if he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so I carried
him home along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time,
and had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect
upon the danger I had been in. I would have been very glad
to have had my boat again on my side of the island; but I
knew not how it was practicable to get it about. As to the
east side of the island, which I had gone round, I knew well
enough there was no venturing that way; my very heart
would shrink, and my very blood run chill, but to think of
it; and as to the other side of the island, I did not know how
it might be there; but supposing the current ran with the
same force against the shore at the east as it passed by it on
the other, I might run the same risk of being driven down
the stream, and carried by the island, as I had been before
of being carried away from it: so with these thoughts, I con-
tented myself to be without any boat, though it had been
the product of so many months’ labour to make it, and of so
many more to get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near a year;
and lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may well sup-
pose; and my thoughts being very much composed as to my
condition, and fully comforted in resigning myself to the
dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived really very hap-
pily in all things except that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic ex-
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ercises which my necessities put me upon applying myself
to; and I believe I should, upon occasion, have made a very
good carpenter, especially considering how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in
my earthenware, and contrived well enough to make them
with a wheel, which I found infinitely easier and better; be-
cause I made things round and shaped, which before were
filthy things indeed to look on. But I think I was never more
vain of my own performance, or more joyful for anything I
found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe;
and though it was a very ugly, clumsy thing when it was
done, and only burned red, like other earthenware, yet as
it was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke, I was ex-
ceedingly comforted with it, for I had been always used to
smoke; and there were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them at
first, not thinking there was tobacco in the island; and af-
terwards, when I searched the ship again, I could not come
at any pipes.
In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made
abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention
showed me; though not very handsome, yet they were such
as were very handy and convenient for laying things up
in, or fetching things home. For example, if I killed a goat
abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, dress it, and cut
it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket; and the like by
a turtle; I could cut it up, take out the eggs and a piece or
two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them
home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. Also, large
deep baskets were the receivers of my corn, which I always
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rubbed out as soon as it was dry and cured, and kept it in
great baskets.
I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably;
this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply,
and I began seriously to consider what I must do when I
should have no more powder; that is to say, how I should
kill any goats. I had, as is observed in the third year of my
being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and
I was in hopes of getting a he-goat; but I could not by any
means bring it to pass, till my kid grew an old goat; and as
I could never find in my heart to kill her, she died at last of
mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and,
as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to
study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether I
could not catch some of them alive; and particularly I want-
ed a she-goat great with young. For this purpose I made
snares to hamper them; and I do believe they were more
than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for I
had no wire, and I always found them broken and my bait
devoured. At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug sev-
eral large pits in the earth, in places where I had observed
the goats used to feed, and over those pits I placed hurdles
of my own making too, with a great weight upon them; and
several times I put ears of barley and dry rice without set-
ting the trap; and I could easily perceive that the goats had
gone in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the marks of
their feet. At length I set three traps in one night, and going
the next morning I found them, all standing, and yet the
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bait eaten and gone; this was very discouraging. However,
I altered my traps; and not to trouble you with particulars,
going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of them a
large old he-goat; and in one of the others three kids, a male
and two females.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he
was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say,
to bring him away alive, which was what I wanted. I could
have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it
answer my end; so I even let him out, and he ran away as
if he had been frightened out of his wits. But I did not then
know what I afterwards learned, that hunger will tame a
lion. If I had let him stay three or four days without food,
and then have carried him some water to drink and then a
little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids;
for they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures, where
they are well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better
at that time: then I went to the three kids, and taking them
one by one, I tied them with strings together, and with some
difficulty brought them all home.
It was a good while before they would feed; but throw-
ing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began
to be tame. And now I found that if I expected to supply
myself with goats’ flesh, when I had no powder or shot left,
breeding some up tame was my only way, when, perhaps, I
might have them about my house like a flock of sheep. But
then it occurred to me that I must keep the tame from the
wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up;
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and the only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of
ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep them
in so effectually, that those within might not break out, or
those without break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet, as
I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first
work was to find out a proper piece of ground, where there
was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to
drink, and cover to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures will think I had
very little contrivance when I pitched upon a place very
proper for all these (being a plain, open piece of meadow
land, or savannah, as our people call it in the western colo-
nies), which had two or three little drills of fresh water in
it, and at one end was very woody - I say, they will smile at
my forecast, when I shall tell them I began by enclosing this
piece of ground in such a manner that, my hedge or pale
must have been at least two miles about. Nor was the mad-
ness of it so great as to the compass, for if it was ten miles
about, I was like to have time enough to do it in; but I did
not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much
compass as if they had had the whole island, and I should
have so much room to chase them in that I should never
catch them.
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fif-
ty yards when this thought occurred to me; so I presently
stopped short, and, for the beginning, I resolved to enclose
a piece of about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and
one hundred yards in breadth, which, as it would maintain
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as many as I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my
stock increased, I could add more ground to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work
with courage. I was about three months hedging in the first
piece; and, till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the
best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as pos-
sible, to make them familiar; and very often I would go and
carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and
feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was
finished and I let them loose, they would follow me up and
down, bleating after me for a handful of corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I
had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two
years more I had three-and-forty, besides several that I took
and killed for my food. After that, I enclosed five several
pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to drive
them to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one piece of
ground into another.
But this was not all; for now I not only had goat’s flesh to
feed on when I pleased, but milk too - a thing which, indeed,
in the beginning, I did not so much as think of, and which,
when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable sur-
prise, for now I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon
or two of milk in a day. And as Nature, who gives supplies of
food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to make
use of it, so I, that had never milked a cow, much less a goat,
or seen butter or cheese made only when I was a boy, after a
great many essays and miscarriages, made both butter and
cheese at last, also salt (though I found it partly made to my
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hand by the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of the
sea), and never wanted it afterwards. How mercifully can
our Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in
which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How
can He sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause
to praise Him for dungeons and prisons! What a table was
here spread for me in the wilderness, where I saw nothing at
first but to perish for hunger!
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CHAPTER XI - FINDS
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; 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! Poll, as if he had been my favou-
rite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog,
who was now grown old and crazy, and had found no spe-
cies 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, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a
mark of especial favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore
at first, for they were both of them dead, and had been in-
terred near my habitation by my own hand; but one of them
having multiplied by I know not what kind of creature,
these were two which I had preserved tame; 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
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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 atten-
dance 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 any more haz-
ards; 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 uneasi-
ness 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 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 any one in England
met such a man as I was, it must 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 travelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage,
and in such a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure,
as follows.
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s 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 so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon
the flesh under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat’s skin, the skirts coming down
to about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed
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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 shoes I had none, but had made
me a pair of somethings, I scarce knew what to call them,
like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side
like spatterdashes, but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed
were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat’s skin dried, which I drew
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 and a hatchet, one on
one side and one on the other. I had another belt not so
broad, and fastened in the same manner, 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, in the other my shot. At my back I car-
ried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and over my
head a great clumsy, ugly, goat’s-skin umbrella, but which,
after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me next
to my gun. As for my face, the colour 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 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 Sallee, for the Moors did not wear such, though the
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Turks did; of these moustachios, 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; 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 travelled first along
the sea-shore, directly to the place where I first brought my
boat 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 to
the same height that I was upon before, when, looking for-
ward to the points of the rocks which lay out, and which I
was obliged to double with my boat, as is said above, I was
surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet - no rippling,
no motion, no current, any more there than in other plac-
es. I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved
to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing
from the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was pres-
ently convinced how it was - viz. 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 of this
current, and that, according as the wind blew more 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, whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and
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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
might very easily bring my boat about the island again; but
when I began to think of putting it in practice, I had such
terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger I
had been in, that I could not think of it again with any pa-
tience, 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 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 enlarged into several apart-
ments or caves, one within another. One of these, which
was the driest and largest, and 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 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 ear, cut off short from the straw, and the
other rubbed out with my hand.
As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles,
those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown
so big, and spread so very much, that there was not the least
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appearance, to any one’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 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 had my country seat, and I had now a tol-
erable 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 in constantly fitted up to its
usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside. I
kept the trees, which at first were no more than stakes, 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, 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 had made me a squab or couch with the skins of the crea-
tures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket
laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which
I had saved; and a great watch-coat 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
pains to fence and enclose this ground. I was so anxious to
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see it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that I
never left off till, with infinite labour, I had stuck the outside
of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one an-
other, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was
scarce room to put a hand through between them; which af-
terwards, when those stakes 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 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 them in my reach depended entirely upon my per-
fecting 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 stakes began to
grow, I had planted them so very thick that I was forced to
pull some of them up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I prin-
cipally 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 to the last degree.
As this was also about half-way between my other habi-
tation and the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally
stayed and lay here in my way thither, for I used frequently
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to visit my boat; and I kept all things about or belonging
to her in very good order. Sometimes I went out in her to
divert myself, but no more hazardous 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, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly sur-
prised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore,
which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one
thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened,
I looked round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see any-
thing; 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, 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 imag-
ine; but after innumerable 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 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 imagina-
tion represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were
found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unac-
countable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.
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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 ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole
in the rock, which I had called a door, I cannot remem-
ber; no, nor could I remember the next morning, for never
frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more ter-
ror of mind than I to this retreat.
I slept none that night; the farther I was from the oc-
casion of my fright, the greater my apprehensions were,
which is something contrary to the 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 must be the devil, and reason joined in with me
in this supposition, for how should any other thing in hu-
man shape come into the place? Where was the vessel that
brought them? What marks were there of any other foot-
step? And how was it possible a man should come there? But
then, to think that Satan should take human shape upon
him in such a place, where there could be no manner of oc-
casion 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 amusement the other way. I con-
sidered 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
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ever see it or not, and in 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 we usually entertain of the subtlety of the
devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me
out of all apprehensions of its being the devil; and I pres-
ently concluded then that it must be some more dangerous
creature - viz. that it must be some of the savages of the
mainland opposite who had wandered out to sea in their ca-
noes, and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds,
had made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone
away again to sea; 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 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 for
me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about
their having found out my boat, and that there were peo-
ple here; and that, if so, 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, all that
former confidence in God, which was founded upon such
wonderful experience as I had had of His goodness; as if He
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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 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 pre-
vent 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 that, what-
ever might come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of
man! and by what secret different springs are the affections
hurried about, as different circumstances present! To-day
we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-
morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow 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, circum-
scribed by 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 liv-
ing, or to appear among the rest of His creatures; that to
have seen one of my own species would have 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 the shadow or silent appearance of a man
having set his foot in the island.
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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 the infinitely wise and good providence of
God had determined for me; that as I could not foresee what
the ends of Divine 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 and dispose of
me absolutely as He thought fit; and who, as I was a crea-
ture 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 submit to bear His indignation, because I
had sinned against Him. I 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; and, on
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 me up many hours, days, nay, I may
say weeks and months: and one particular effect of my cogi-
tations 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 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 com-
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forted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly
to God for deliverance: when I had done praying I took up
my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that pre-
sented 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 an-
swer, I thankfully laid down the 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 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 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 only the print of my own foot, I had played
the part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres
and apparitions, and 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 within doors but some barley-cakes and
water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too,
which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor crea-
tures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it;
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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 be truly said to start at my own
shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country
house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I went for-
ward, 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 any one have thought I was haunted with
an 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 imagination; but I could not persuade my-
self 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 it was my own foot: but when I came to the place,
first, it appeared 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 gave me
the vapours 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 take for
my security I knew not.
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Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when pos-
sessed 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 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: then to demol-
ish 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 persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night’s cogitations af-
ter I was come home again, while the apprehensions which
had so overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and my head
was full of vapours. 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: and what
was worse than all this, I had not that relief in this trouble
that from the resignation I used to practise I hoped to have.
I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not only
that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had for-
saken him; for I did not now take due ways to compose my
mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon
His providence, as I had done before, for my defence 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.
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This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night;
but in the morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amuse-
ment 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 began to
think sedately; and, upon debate with myself, I concluded
that this island (which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruit-
ful, and no farther from the mainland than as I had seen)
was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; that al-
though there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the
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 cross winds, might come to this
place; that I had lived there fifteen years now and had not
met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; and
that, if at any time they should be driven here, it was prob-
able they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing
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 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 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
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said, came out 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 semi-
circle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted
a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I
made mention: these trees having been planted so thick be-
fore, 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 had now a double wall; and my
outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables,
and everything I could think of, to make it strong; having
in it 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 to plant the mus-
kets, of which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out
of the ship; these I planted like my cannon, and 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, 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 every way, as full with stakes or sticks
of the osier- like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they
could well stand; insomuch that I believe I might set in near
twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space be-
tween them and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees,
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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 wood before my dwelling, growing so
monstrously thick and strong that it was indeed perfectly
impassable: and no men, of what kind soever, could ever
imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less a hab-
itation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in
and out (for I 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 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 still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could sug-
gest 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 sug-
gested to me.
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CHAPTER XII - A
CAVE RETREAT
WHILE this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my
other affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little
herd of goats: they were not only a ready supply to me on ev-
ery occasion, and began to be sufficient for me, without the
expense of powder and shot, but also without the fatigue
of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to lose the
advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over
again.
For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think
of but two ways to preserve them: one was, to find another
convenient place to dig a cave underground, and to drive
them into it every night; and the other was to enclose two
or three little bits of land, remote from one another, and as
much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half-
a-dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster
happened to the flock in general, I might be able to raise
them again with little trouble and time: and this though it
would require a good deal of time and labour, I thought was
the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most re-
tired parts of the island; and I pitched upon one, which was
as private, indeed, as my heart could wish: it was a little
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damp piece of ground in the middle of the hollow and thick
woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself once be-
fore, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern
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