part of my story, it may not be improper to give some ac-
count of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish
scheme for my escape, and how, and upon what foundation,
I acted.
I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my
late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured un-
der water, as usual, and my condition restored to what it
was before: I had more wealth, indeed, than I had before,
but was not at all the richer; for I had no more use for it than
the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came there.
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the
four- and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this is-
land of solitude, I was lying in my bed or hammock, awake,
very well in health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness
of body, nor any uneasiness of mind more than ordinary,
but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so as to sleep;
no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as follows: It is
impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts
that whirled through that great thoroughfare of the brain,
the memory, in this night’s time. I ran over the whole his-
tory of my life in miniature, or by abridgment, as I may call
it, to my coming to this island, and also of that part of my
life since I came to this island. In my reflections upon the
state of my case since I came on shore on this island, I was
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comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years
of my habitation here, with the life of anxiety, fear, and care
which I had lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot
in the sand. Not that I did not believe the savages had fre-
quented the island even all the while, and might have been
several hundreds of them at times on shore there; but I had
never known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions
about it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was
the same, and I was as happy in not knowing my danger
as if I had never really been exposed to it. This furnished
my thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and par-
ticularly this one: How infinitely good that Providence is,
which has provided, in its government of mankind, such
narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and
though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers,
the sight of which, if discovered to him, would distract his
mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by
having the events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing
nothing of the dangers which surround him.
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I
came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in
for so many years in this very island, and how I had walked
about in the greatest security, and with all possible tran-
quillity, even when perhaps nothing but the brow of a hill,
a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been be-
tween me and the worst kind of destruction - viz. that of
falling into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would
have seized on me with the same view as I would on a goat
or turtle; and have thought it no more crime to kill and de-
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vour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would unjustly
slander myself if I should say I was not sincerely thank-
ful to my great Preserver, to whose singular protection I
acknowledged, with great humanity, all these unknown de-
liverances were due, and without which I must inevitably
have fallen into their merciless hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some
time taken up in considering the nature of these wretched
creatures, I mean the savages, and how it came to pass in
the world that the wise Governor of all things should give
up any of His creatures to such inhumanity - nay, to some-
thing so much below even brutality itself - as to devour its
own kind: but as this ended in some (at that time) fruit-
less speculations, it occurred to me to inquire what part
of the world these wretches lived in? how far off the coast
was from whence they came? what they ventured over so
far from home for? what kind of boats they had? and why I
might not order myself and my business so that I might be
able to go over thither, as they were to come to me?
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I
should do with myself when I went thither; what would be-
come of me if I fell into the hands of these savages; or how
I should escape them if they attacked me; no, nor so much
as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and not to
be attacked by some or other of them, without any possibil-
ity of delivering myself: and if I should not fall into their
hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I should
bend my course: none of these thoughts, I say, so much as
came in my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the
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notion of my passing over in my boat to the mainland. I
looked upon my present condition as the most miserable
that could possibly be; that I was not able to throw myself
into anything but death, that could be called worse; and if
I reached the shore of the main I might perhaps meet with
relief, or I might coast along, as I did on the African shore,
till I came to some inhabited country, and where I might
find some relief; and after all, perhaps I might fall in with
some Christian ship that might take me in: and if the worst
came to the worst, I could but die, which would put an end
to all these miseries at once. Pray note, all this was the fruit
of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made desper-
ate, as it were, by the long continuance of my troubles, and
the disappointments I had met in the wreck I had been on
board of, and where I had been so near obtaining what I so
earnestly longed for - somebody to speak to, and to learn
some knowledge from them of the place where I was, and of
the probable means of my deliverance. I was agitated wholly
by these thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation
to Providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of
Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had as it were no
power to turn my thoughts to anything but to the project
of a voyage to the main, which came upon me with such
force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to
be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or
more, with such violence that it set my very blood into a fer-
ment, and my pulse beat as if I had been in a fever, merely
with the extraordinary fervour of my mind about it, Na-
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ture - as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the very
thoughts of it - threw me into a sound sleep. One would
have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor
of anything relating to it, but I dreamed that as I was go-
ing out in the morning as usual from my castle, I saw upon
the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land,
and that they brought with them another savage whom they
were going to kill in order to eat him; when, on a sudden,
the savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran
for his life; and I thought in my sleep that he came running
into my little thick grove before my fortification, to hide
himself; and that I seeing him alone, and not perceiving
that the others sought him that way, showed myself to him,
and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled
down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which
I showed him my ladder, made him go up, and carried him
into my cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon
as I had got this man, I said to myself, ‘Now I may certainly
venture to the mainland, for this fellow will serve me as a
pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for pro-
visions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured;
what places to venture into, and what to shun.’ I waked with
this thought; and was under such inexpressible impressions
of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the
disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself, and
finding that it was no more than a dream, were equally ex-
travagant the other way, and threw me into a very great
dejection of spirits.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only
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way to go about to attempt an escape was, to endeavour to
get a savage into my possession: and, if possible, it should
be one of their prisoners, whom they had condemned to be
eaten, and should bring hither to kill. But these thoughts
still were attended with this difficulty: that it was impossi-
ble to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them,
and killing them all; and this was not only a very desper-
ate attempt, and might miscarry, but, on the other hand, I
had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to myself; and my
heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much blood,
though it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the ar-
guments which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before; but though I had other reasons to
offer now - viz. that those men were enemies to my life, and
would devour me if they could; that it was self-preservation,
in the highest degree, to deliver myself from this death of
a life, and was acting in my own defence as much as if they
were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say though these
things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human
blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such
as I could by no means reconcile myself to for a great while.
However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself,
and after great perplexities about it (for all these arguments,
one way and another, struggled in my head a long time), the
eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all
the rest; and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these savag-
es into my hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to
contrive how to do it, and this, indeed, was very difficult to
resolve on; but as I could pitch upon no probable means for
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it, so I resolved to put myself upon the watch, to see them
when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event;
taking such measures as the opportunity should present, let
what would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon
the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often that I was
heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that I
waited; and for great part of that time went out to the west
end, and to the south- west corner of the island almost ev-
ery day, to look for canoes, but none appeared. This was
very discouraging, and began to trouble me much, though I
cannot say that it did in this case (as it had done some time
before) wear off the edge of my desire to the thing; but the
longer it seemed to be delayed, the more eager I was for it: in
a word, I was not at first so careful to shun the sight of these
savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now eager
to be upon them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage
one, nay, two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make
them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct
them, and to prevent their being able at any time to do me
any hurt. It was a great while that I pleased myself with this
affair; but nothing still presented itself; all my fancies and
schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for
a great while.
About a year and a half after I entertained these notions
(and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into
nothing, for want of an occasion to put them into execu-
tion), I was surprised one morning by seeing no less than
five canoes all on shore together on my side the island, and
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the people who belonged to them all landed and out of my
sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for see-
ing so many, and knowing that they always came four or six,
or sometimes more in a boat, I could not tell what to think
of it, or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirty
men single-handed; so lay still in my castle, perplexed and
discomforted. However, I put myself into the same posi-
tion for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just
ready for action, if anything had presented. Having waited
a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at
length, being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of
my ladder, and .clambered up to the top of the hill, by my
two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did
not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive
me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my per-
spective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number;
that they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed.
How they had cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but they
were all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous ges-
tures and figures, their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my
perspective, two miserable wretches dragged from the
boats, where, it seems, they were laid by, and were now
brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of them im-
mediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a club
or wooden sword, for that was their way; and two or three
others were at work immediately, cutting him open for
their cookery, while the other victim was left standing by
himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very mo-
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ment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty and
unbound, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he
started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness
along the sands, directly towards me; I mean towards that
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