The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)
Page 16
without any defence But I am cast on an or means to resist island, where I see no any violence of man or wild beasts to hurt me, beast. as I saw on the coast of Africa: and what if I had been shipwrecked there?
I have no soul to speak But God wonderfully to, or relieve me. sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that I have gotten out so 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 scarceany condition in the world so miserable, but there was something_negative_ or something _positive_ to be thankful for in it; and letthis stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable ofall conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something tocomfort 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 condition, and givenover looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship; I say, givingover these things, I began to apply myself to accommodate my way ofliving, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the sideof a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but Imight now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up againstit of turfs, about two foot thick on the outside; and after some time, Ithink it was a year and half, I raised rafters from it, leaning to therock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such thingsas I could get to keep out the rain, which I found at some times of theyear very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, andinto the cave which I had made behind me: but I must observe too that atfirst 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 setmyself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it was aloose 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 workedsideways to the right hand into the rock; and then, turning to the rightagain, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out, on the outsideof my pale or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were a back-way to mytent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I foundI most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I wasnot able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not writeor 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 reason is thesubstance and original of the mathematics, so by stating and squaringevery thing by reason, and by making the most rational judgment ofthings, every man may be in time master of every mechanic art. I hadnever handled a tool in my life, and yet in time, by labour,application, and contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing butI could have made it, especially if I had had tools; however, I madeabundance of things, even without tools, and some with no more toolsthan an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that waybefore, 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 had brought it to beas thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, bythis method I could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this Ihad no remedy for but patience, any more than I had for the prodigiousdeal 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 employedone way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in thefirst place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that Ibrought on my raft from the ship: but when I had wrought out someboards, as above, I made large shelves of the breadth of a foot and ahalf one over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all mytools, nails, and iron-work, and in a word, to separate every thing atlarge in their places, that I might come easily at them. I knockedpieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all things thatwould hang up.
So that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general magazineof all necessary things; and I had every thing so ready at my hand, thatit was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, andespecially 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 a hurry; and not only hurry as tolabour, but in too much discomposure of mind, and my journal would havebeen full of many dull things. For example, I must have said thus: Sept.the 30th, after I got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead ofbeing thankful to God for my deliverance, having first vomited with thegreat quantity of salt water which was gotten into my stomach, andrecovering myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringing my hands,and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, Iwas undone, undone; till tired and faint I was forced to lie down on theground 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 gotall that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear getting up to thetop of a little mountain, and looking out to sea in hopes of seeing aship; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail; please myself withthe hopes of it; and then after looking steadily till I was almostblind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thusincrease my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settledmy household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and allas handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my journal, of which Ishall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all thoseparticulars over again) as long as it lasted; for having no more ink, Iwas forced to leave it off.
* * * * *
THE JOURNAL.
_September 30, 1659_.
I poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadfulstorm 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 companybeing drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismalcircumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither food, house,clothes, weapon, or place to fly to, and in despair of any relief, sawnothing but death before me, either that I should be devoured by wildbeasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. Atthe approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures, butslept soundly, though it rained all night.
October 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship hadfloated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearerthe island; which as it was some comfort on one hand, for seeing her situpright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I mightget on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for myrelief; so on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of mycomrades, who I imagined, if we had all staid on board, might have savedthe ship, or at least that they would not have been all drowned, as theywere; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us aboat out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us to some other partof the world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing myself onthese things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, I went upon thesand as near as I could, and then swam on board. This day also itcontinued raining, though with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th. All these days entirely spent inmany several voyages to get all I could out of the ship, which
I broughton shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much rain also in these days,though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it seems, this was therainy season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got up upon it; butbeing in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, I recoveredmany of them when the tide was out.
Oct. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind;during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blowing a littleharder than before, and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her,and that only at low water. I spent this day in covering and securingthe goods which I had saved, that rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26. I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a place tofix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack inthe night, either from wild beasts or men. Towards night I fixed upon aproper place under a rock, and marked out a semicircle for myencampment, which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, orfortification made of double piles, lined within