particularly because there was no fresh water near it; so I
resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot
of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found
would he proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water, I just
now mentioned; 2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun;
3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether man or
beast; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in
sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of
which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain
on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little
plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come
down upon me from the top. On the one side of the rock
there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like the en-
trance or door of a cave but there was not really any cave or
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way into the rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I
resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above a hun-
dred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a
green before my door; and, at the end of it, descended irreg-
ularly every way down into the low ground by the seaside.
It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill; so that it was sheltered
from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S. sun, or
thereabouts, which, in those countries, is near the setting.
Before I set up my tent I drew a half-circle before the
hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-di-
ameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter from
its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes,
driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like
piles, the biggest end being out of the ground above five feet
and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows did not
stand above six inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship,
and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle,
between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing oth-
er stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about two feet
and a half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so
strong, that neither man nor beast could get into it or over
it. This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially
to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and
drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door,
but by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I
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was in, I lifted over after me; and so I was completely fenced
in and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and con-
sequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I could
not have done; though, as it appeared afterwards, there was
no need of all this caution from the enemies that I appre-
hended danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried
all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of
which you have the account above; and I made a large tent,
which to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the
year are very violent there, I made double - one smaller tent
within, and one larger tent above it; and covered the up-
permost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among
the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a
very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every-
thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed
all my goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had
left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short
ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down
out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence, in the
nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about
a foot and a half; and thus I made me a cave, just behind my
tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these
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things were brought to perfection; and therefore I must
go back to some other things which took up some of my
thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had laid my
scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave,
that a storm of rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sud-
den flash of lightning happened, and after that a great clap
of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I was not so much
surprised with the lightning as I was with the thought which
darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself - Oh,
my powder! My very heart sank within me when I thought
that, at one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on
which, not my defence only, but the providing my food, as I
thought, entirely depended. I was nothing near so anxious
about my own danger, though, had the powder took fire, I
should never have known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the
storm was over I laid aside all my works, my building and
fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to
separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a
parcel, in the hope that, whatever might come, it might not
all take fire at once; and to keep it so apart that it should
not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this
work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in
all was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, was
divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the bar-
rel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from
that; so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, I
called my kitchen; and the rest I hid up and down in holes
among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking
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very carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out
once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself
as to see if I could kill anything fit for food; and, as near as
I could, to acquaint myself with what the island produced.
The first time I went out, I presently discovered that there
were goats in the island, which was a great satisfaction to
me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me -
viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that
it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them;
but I was not discouraged at this, not doubting but I might
now and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after I had
found their haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for
them: I observed if they saw me in the valleys, though they
were upon the rocks, they would run away, as in a terrible
fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon
the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I con-
cluded that, by the position of their optics, their sight was
so directed downward that they did not readily see objects
that were above them; so afterwards I took this method - I
always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then
had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a
she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck
to, which grieved me heartily; for when the old one fell, the
kid stood stock still by her, till I came and took her up; and
not only so, but when I carried the old one with me, upon
my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure;
upon which I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my
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arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it
up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it and
eat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while,
for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions, my bread espe-
cially, as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to
burn: and what I did for that, and also how I enlarged my
cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full ac-
count of in its place; but I must now give some little account
of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it may
well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not
cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said,
by a violent storm, quite out of the course of our intended
voyage, and a great way, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out
of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I had great
reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in
this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end
my life. The tears would run plentifully down my face when
I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostu-
late with myself why Providence should thus completely
ruin His creatures, and render them so absolutely miser-
able; so without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that
it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check
these thoughts, and to reprove me; and particularly one day,
walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside, I was very
pensive upon the subject of my present condition, when
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reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way, thus:
‘Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come,
eleven of you in the boat? Where are the ten? Why were
they not saved, and you lost? Why were you singled out? Is
it better to be here or there?’ And then I pointed to the sea.
All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them,
and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished
for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it
had not happened (which was a hundred thousand to one)
that the ship floated from the place where she first struck,
and was driven so near to the shore that I had time to get all
these things out of her; what would have been my case, if I
had been forced to have lived in the condition in which I at
first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessar-
ies to supply and procure them? ‘Particularly,’ said I, aloud
(though to myself), ‘what should I have done without a gun,
without ammunition, without any tools to make anything,
or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any
manner of covering?’ and that now I had all these to suf-
ficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in
such a manner as to live without my gun, when my ammu-
nition was spent: so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting,
without any want, as long as I lived; for I considered from
the beginning how I would provide for the accidents that
might happen, and for the time that was to come, even not
only after my ammunition should be spent, but even after
my health and strength should decay.
1
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I confess I had not entertained any notion of my am-
munition being destroyed at one blast - I mean my powder
being blown up by lightning; and this made the thoughts of
it so surprising to me, when it lightened and thundered, as
I observed just now.
And now being about to enter into a melancholy relation
of a scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of
in the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and
continue it in its order. It was by my account the 30th of
September, when, in the manner as above said, I first set
foot upon this horrid island; when the sun, being to us in its
autumnal equinox, was almost over my head; for I reckoned
myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of nine degrees
twenty-two minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came
into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time
for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget
the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut with my knife
upon a large post, in capital letters - and making it into a
great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed - ‘I
came on shore here on the 30th September 1659.’
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch
with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again
as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again
as that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly,
monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the many
things which I brought out of the ship, in the several voy-
ages which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got several
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things of less value, but not at all less useful to me, which
I omitted setting down before; as, in particular, pens, ink,
and paper, several parcels in the captain’s, mate’s, gunner’s
and carpenter’s keeping; three or four compasses, some
mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and
books of navigation, all which I huddled together, whether I
might want them or no; also, I found three very good Bibles,
which came to me in my cargo from England, and which I
had packed up among my things; some Portuguese books
also; and among them two or three Popish prayer-books,
and several other books, all which I carefully secured. And
I must not forget that we had in the ship a dog and two cats,
of whose eminent history I may have occasion to say some-
thing in its place; for I carried both the cats with me; and as
for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam
on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first
cargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted
nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he
could make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk to me,
but that would not do. As I observed before, I found pens,
ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I
shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact,
but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any
ink by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things not-
withstanding all that I had amassed together; and of these,
ink was one; as also a spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or
remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread; as for linen, I
soon learned to want that without much difficulty.
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This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily;
and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished
my little pale, or surrounded my habitation. The piles, or
stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long
time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more, by
far, in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days in
cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third
day in driving it into the ground; for which purpose I got
a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself
of one of the iron crows; which, however, though I found it,
made driving those posts or piles very laborious and tedious
work. But what need I have been concerned at the tedious-
ness of anything I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do
it in? nor had I any other employment, if that had been over,
at least that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to
seek for food, which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the
circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of
my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that
were to come after me - for I was likely to have but few heirs
- as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring over them, and
afflicting my mind; and as my reason began now to mas-
ter my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I
could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have
something to distinguish my case from worse; and I stat-
ed very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I
enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:-
Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all
hope of recovery.
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Good: But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship’s
company were.
Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all
the world, to be miserable.
Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship’s crew,
to be spared from death; and He that miraculously saved
me from death can deliver me from this condition.
Evil: I am divided from mankind - a solitaire; one ban-
ished from human society.
Good: But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren
place, affording no sustenance.
Evil: I have no clothes to cover me.
Good: But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had clothes, I
could hardly wear them.
Evil: I am without any defence, or means to resist any
violence of man or beast.
Good: But I am cast on an island where I see no wild
beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of Africa; and what
if I had been shipwrecked there?
Evil: I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.
Good: But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough
to the shore, that I have got out as many necessary things as
will either supply my wants or enable me to supply myself,
even as long as I live.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that
there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable
but there was something negative or something positive to
be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from
the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in
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this world: that we may always find in it something to com-
fort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good
and evil, on the credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condi-
tion, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy
a ship - I say, giving over these things, I begun to apply my-
self to arrange my way of living, and to make things as easy
to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of
posts and cables: but I might now rather call it a wall, for I
raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two feet
thick on the outside; and after some time (I think it was a
year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock,
and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such
things as I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found at
some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into
this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me.
But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused
heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took
up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so I set my-
self to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for
it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour
I bestowed on it: and so when I found I was pretty safe as to
beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the right hand, into the
rock; and then, turning to the right again, worked quite out,
and made me a door to come out on the outside of my pale
or fortification. This gave me not only egress and regress, as
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it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave
me room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such neces-
sary things as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair
and a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few
comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do
several things, with so much pleasure without a table: so I
went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as rea-
son is the substance and origin of the mathematics, so by
stating and squaring everything by reason, and by making
the most rational judgment of things, every man may be, in
time, master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a
tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and
contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could
have made it, especially if I had had tools. However, I made
abundance of things, even without tools; and some with no
more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were
never made that way before, and that with infinite labour.
For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to
cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat
on either side with my axe, till I brought it to be thin as a
plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by
this method I could make but one board out of a whole tree;
but this I had no remedy for but patience, any more than I
had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took
me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was
little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as an-
other.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed
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above, in the first place; and this I did out of the short piec-
es of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. But
when I had wrought out some boards as above, I made large
shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over an-
other all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails
and ironwork on; and, in a word, to separate everything at
large into their places, that I might come easily at them. I
knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns
and all things that would hang up; so that, had my cave been
to be seen, it looked like a general magazine of all necessary
things; and had everything so ready at my hand, that it was
a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and
especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every
day’s employment; for, indeed, at first I was in too much
hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much dis-
composure of mind; and my journal would have been full of
many dull things; for example, I must have said thus: ‘30TH.
- After I had got to shore, and escaped drowning, instead
of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having first
vomited, with the great quantity of salt water which had got
into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about
the shore wringing my hands and beating my head and face,
exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, ‘I was undone,
undone!’ till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on
the ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being
devoured.’
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the
ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not for-
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bear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking
out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy at a vast dis-
tance I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and
then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it
quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase
my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure,
and having settled my household staff and habitation, made
me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I
could, I began to keep my journal; of which I shall here give
you the copy (though in it will be told all these particulars
over again) as long as it lasted; for having no more ink, I was
forced to leave it off.
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CHAPTER V - BUILDS A
HOUSE - THE JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 30, 1659. - I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe,
being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing,
came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I
called ‘The Island of Despair”; all the rest of the ship’s com-
pany being drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the
dismal circumstances I was brought to - viz. I had neither
food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to; and in de-
spair of any relief, saw nothing but death before me - either
that I should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by sav-
ages, or starved to death for want of food. At the approach
of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; but slept
soundly, though it rained all night.
OCTOBER 1. - In the morning I saw, to my great surprise,
the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on
shore again much nearer the island; which, as it was some
comfort, on one hand - for, seeing her set upright, and not
broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get
on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for
my relief - so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the
loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all stayed
on board, might have saved the ship, or, at least, that they
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would not have been all drowned as they were; and that, had
the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat
out of the ruins of the ship to have carried us to some other
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