by Daniel Defoe
thatin less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea wasall on a sudden covered over with foam and froth, the shore was coveredwith the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the roots, and aterrible storm it was; and this held about three hours, and then beganto abate, and in two hours more it was stark calm, and began to rainvery hard.
All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified and dejected,when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rainbeing the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spentand over, and I might venture into my cave again: with this thought myspirits began to revive, and the rain also helping to persuade me, Iwent in and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, that mytent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was forced to go into mycave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall onmy head.
This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to cut a hole through mynew fortification like a sink, to let water go out, which would elsehave drowned my cave. After I had been in my cave some time, and foundstill no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be morecomposed; and now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it verymuch, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum, whichhowever I did then and always very sparingly, knowing I could have nomore when that was gone.
It continued raining all that night, and great part of the next day, sothat I could not stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, I beganto think of what I had best do, concluding, that if the island wassubject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave,but I must consider of building me some little hut in an open place,which I might surround with a wall as I had done here, and so makemyself secure from wild beasts or men: but concluded, if I staid where Iwas, I should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent from the place where itstood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill, andwhich, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent.And I spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, incontriving where and how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me that I never slept inquiet, and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence wasalmost equal to it; but still, when I looked about and saw how everything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safefrom danger, it made me very loth to remove.
In the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal oftime for me to do this, and that I must be contented to run the venturewhere I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it soas to remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself for atime, and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me awall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before; and set my tentup in it when it was finished, but that I would venture to stay where Iwas till it was finished and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put thisresolve in execution, but I was at a great loss about my tools. I hadthree large axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchetsfor traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cuttingknotty hard wood, they were all full of notches and dull; and though Ihad a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too: this costme as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand pointof politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length Icontrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I mighthave both my hands at liberty. _Note_, I had never seen any such thingin England, or at least not to take notice how it was done, though sinceI have observed it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone wasvery large and heavy. This machine cost me a full week's work to bringit to perfection.
April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, mymachine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now Itook a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, whichmade my heart very heavy.
May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide being low,I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary; and it lookedlike a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or threepieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the latehurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed tolie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrelwhich was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder,but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone;however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on uponthe sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed; theforecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least sixfoot; and the stern, which was broke to pieces, and parted from the restby the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her, wastossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side, and the sand was thrown sohigh on that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great placeof water before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile ofthe wreck without swimming, I could now walk quite up to her when thetide was out. I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded itmust be done by the earthquake: and as by this violence the ship wasmore broken open than formerly, so many things came daily on shore,which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolled bydegrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing myhabitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, insearching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I foundnothing was to be expected of that kind, for that all the inside of theship was choked up with sand: however, as I had learnt not to despair ofany thing, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of theship, concluding, that every thing I could get from her would be of someuse or other to me.
May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which Ithought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and when Ihad cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from theside which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to giveover for that time.
Way 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of,till I was weary of my sport; when just going to leave off, I caught ayoung dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope yarn, but I had nohooks, yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat;all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.
May 5. Worked on the wreck, cut another beam asunder, and brought threegreat fir planks off from the decks, which I tied together, and madeswim on shore when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. Worked on the wreck, got several iron bolts out of her, andother pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very muchtired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
May 7. Went to the wreck again, but with an intent not to work, butfound the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams beingcut, that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the insideof the hold lay so open, that I could see into it, but almost full ofwater and sand.
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up thedeck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand; I wrenched opentwo planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide: I left theiron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body ofthe wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, butcould not break them up: I felt also the roll of English lead, and couldstir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Went every day to the wreck, and got a greatmany pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundredweight of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece offthe roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving itwith the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, Icould n
ot make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared morebroken by the force of the water; but I staid so long in the woods toget pigeons for food, that the tide prevented me going to the wreckthat day.
May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a greatdistance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, andfound it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away.
May 24. Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, and with hardlabour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the firstflowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests;but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day butpieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brasil pork in it, butthe salt water and the sand had spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except the timenecessary to get food, which I always appointed, during this part of myemployment, to be when the tide was up, that I might be ready when itwas