by Daniel Defoe
I might be truly said to startat my own shadow), I began to go abroad again, and went to mycountry-house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I wentforward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready, every now andthen, to lay down my basket, and run for my life; it would have made anyone have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I hadbeen lately most terribly frighted; and so indeed I had.
However, as 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 init but my own imagination; but I could not persuade myself fully ofthis, till I should go down to the shore again, and see this print of afoot, and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude orfitness, that I might be assured it was my own foot. But when I came tothe place first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up myboat, I could not possibly be on shore any where thereabouts. Secondly,when I came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not solarge by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with newimaginations, and gave me the vapours again to the highest degree; sothat 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 surprisedbefore I was aware; and what course to take for my security, I knew not.
O what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed with fear! Itdeprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for theirrelief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down myenclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that theenemy might not find them, and then frequent the island in prospect ofthe same, or the like booty; then to the simple thing of digging up mytwo corn fields, that they might not find such a grain there, and stillto be prompted to frequent the island; then to demolish my bower andtent, that they might not see any vestiges of my habitation, and beprompted to look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subjects of the first night's cogitation, after I wascome home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run my mindwere fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as above. Thus fearof danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, whenapparent to the eyes; and, we find the burden of anxiety greater bymuch than the evil which we are anxious about; but, which was worse thanall this, I had not that relief in this trouble from the resignation Iused to practise, that I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul,who complained not only that the Philistines were upon him, but that Godhad forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, bycrying to God in my distress, and resting upon his providence, as I haddone before, for my defence and deliverance; which if I had done, I had,at least, been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, andperhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all night; but in themorning I fell asleep, and having by the amusement of my mind been, asit were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and Iawaked much better composed than I had ever been before. And now I beganto think sedately; and, upon the utmost debate with myself, I concluded,that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and nofarther from the main land than as I had seen, was not so entirelyabandoned as I might imagine: that although there were no statedinhabitants who lived on the spot; yet that there might sometimes comeboats off from the shore, who either with design, or perhaps never butwhen they were driven by cross winds, might come to this place.
That I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with theleast-shadow or figure of any people before; and that if at any timethey should be driven here, it was probable they went away again as soonas ever they could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix there uponany occasion, to this time.
That the most I could suggest any danger from, was, from any such casualaccidental landing of straggling people from the main, who, as it waslikely, if they were driven hither, were here against their wills; sothey 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 ofthe tides and daylight back again; and that therefore I had nothing todo but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I should see anysavages land upon the spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large, as tobring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond wheremy fortification joined to the rock. Upon maturely considering this,therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the mannerof a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted adouble row of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mention:these trees having been planted so thick before, there wanted but a fewpiles to be driven between them, that they should be thicker andstronger, and my wall would be soon finished.
So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wall was thickened withpieces of timber, old cables, and every thing I could think of to makeit strong; having in it seven little holes, about as big as I might putmy arm out at. In the inside of this I thickened my wall to about tenfeet thick, continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it atthe foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes Icontrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I got sevenon shore out of the ship; these, I say, I planted like my cannon, andfitted them into frames that held them like a carriage, that so I couldfire all the seven guns in two minutes time. This wall I was many aweary month in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till itwas done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a greatway 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 Ibelieve I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a prettylarge space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see anenemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if theyattempted to approach my outer wall.
Thus in two years time I had a thick grove; and in five or six yearstime I had a wood before my dwelling, grown so monstrous thick andstrong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no man of what kindsoever would ever imagine that there was any thing beyond it, much lessan habitation: as for the way I proposed myself to go in and out (for Ileft no avenue), it was by setting two ladders; one to a part of therock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place anotherladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down, no man livingcould come down to me without mischiefing himself; and if they had comedown, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my ownpreservation; and it will be seen at length, that they were notaltogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that timemore than my mere fear suggested.
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 werenot only a present supply to me upon every occasion, and began to besufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but alsoabated the fatigue of my hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath tolose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.
To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think but of two waysto preserve them: one was to find another convenient place to dig a caveunder ground, and to drive them into it every night; and the other wasto 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 dozenyoung goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened to the flockin general, I might be able to raise them again with little trouble andtime: and this, though it would require a great deal of time and labour,I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly I spent some time, to find out the most retired parts of theisland; and I pitched upon one, which was as private indeed as my heartcould wish; for it was a little damp piece of ground in the middle ofthe hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I a
lmost lost myselfonce before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part ofthe island: here I found a clear piece of land near three acres, sosurrounded with woods, that it was almost an enclosure by nature; atleast it did not want near so much labour to make it so, as the otherpieces of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than amonth's time I had so fenced it round, that my flock or herd, call itwhich you please, which were not so wild now as at first they might besupposed to be, were well enough secured in it. So without any fartherdelay, I removed ten she-goats and two he-goats to this piece; and whenthere, I continued to perfect the fence, till I had made it as secure asthe other, which, however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up moretime by a great deal.
All this labour I was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions onthe account of the print of a man's foot which I had seen; for as yet, Inever saw any human creature come near the