by Daniel Defoe
island, and I had now livedtwo years under these uneasinesses, which indeed made my life much lesscomfortable than it was before; as may well be imagined, by any who knowwhat it is to live in the constant snare of the fear of man; and this Imust observe with grief too, that the discomposure of my mind had toogreat impressions also upon the religious part of my thoughts; for thedread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and cannibals layso upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due temper forapplication to my Maker; at least, not with the sedate calmness andresignation of soul which I was wont to do. I rather prayed to God asunder great affliction and pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, andin expectation every night of being murdered and devoured before themorning; and I must testify from my experience, that a temper of peace,thankfulness, love, and affection, is much more the proper frame forprayer than that of terror and discomposure; and that under the dread ofmischief impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting performance ofthe duty of praying to God, than he is for repentance on a sick bed; forthese discomposures affect the mind as the others do the body; and thediscomposure of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability asthat of the body, and much greater; praying to God being properly an actof the mind, not of the body.
But to go on: after I had thus secured one part of my little livingstock, I went about the whole island, searching for another privateplace, to make such another deposit; when wandering more to the westpoint of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, Ithought I saw a boat upon the sea at a great distance; I had found aperspective glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which I savedout of our ship; but I had it not about me, and this was so remote, thatI could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyeswere not able to look any longer: whether it was a boat, or not, I donot know; but as I descended from the hill, I could see no more of it,so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more without a perspectiveglass in my pocket.
When I was come down the hill, to the end of the island, where indeed Ihad never been before, I was presently convinced, that the seeing theprint of a man's foot, was not such a strange thing in the island as Iimagined; and, but that it was a special providence that I was cast uponthe side of the island where the savages never came, I should easilyhave known, that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from themain, when, they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shootover to that side of the island for harbour; likewise, as they oftenmet, and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken anyprisoners, would bring them over to this shore, where, according totheir dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eatthem: of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being theS.W. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor isit possible for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing the shorespread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; andparticularly I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and acircle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where it is supposed thesavage wretches had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodiesof their fellow-creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I entertainedno notions of any danger to myself from it, for a long while; all myapprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman,hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature;which, though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a view ofbefore: in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle; mystomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when naturedischarged the disorder from my stomach, and, having vomited with anuncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stayin the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speedI could, and walked on towards my own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still awhile as amazed; and then recovering myself, I looked up with the utmostaffection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave Godthanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I wasdistinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that though Ihad esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me somany comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for than tocomplain of; and this above all, that I had, even in this miserablecondition, been comforted with the knowledge of himself, and the hope ofhis blessing, which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent toall the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began to bemuch easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I wasbefore; for I observed, that these wretches never came to this island insearch of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or notexpecting, any thing here, and having often, no doubt, been up in thecovered woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. Iknew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the leastfootsteps of a human creature there before; and might be here eighteenmore as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself tothem, which I had no manner of occasion to do, it being my only businessto keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a bettersort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.
Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I havebeen speaking of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouringand eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and keptclose within my own circle for almost two years after this: when I saymy own circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz. my castle, mycountry-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods;nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for mygoats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretcheswas such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing, the devilhimself; nor did I so much as go to look after my boat in all this time,but began rather to think of making me another; for I could not thinkof ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round theisland to me, lest I should meet with some of those creatures at sea, inwhich, if I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew whatwould have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had, that I was in no danger ofbeing discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness aboutthem; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before;only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyesmore about me than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by anyof them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lestany of them on the island should happen to hear it; and it was thereforea very good providence to me, that I had furnished myself with a tamebreed of goats, that I had no need to hunt any more about the woods, orshoot at them; and if I did catch any more of them after this, it was bytraps and snares, as I had done before; so that for two years afterthis, I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went outwithout it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols out of theship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them,sticking them in my goat-skin belt: I likewise furbished up one of thegreat cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to put itin also; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when Iwent abroad, if you add to the former description of myself, theparticular of two pistols, and a great broad-sword, hanging at my sidein a belt, but without a scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed, exceptingthese cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living.All these things tended to shew me more and more how far my conditionwas from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to many otherparticulars of life, which it might have pleased God to have made mylot. It put me upon reflecting, how little repining there would beamong mankind, at any condition of life, if people would rather comparetheir condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, thanbe always comparing them with those which are better, to assist theirmurmurings and complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many things which Iwanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about thesesavage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation,had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences, and Ihad dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon; andthat was, to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, andthen try to brew myself some beer: this was really a whimsical thought,and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for I presentlysaw there would be the want of several things necessary to the making mybeer, that it would be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks topreserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already, Icould never compass; no, though I spent not many days, but weeks, naymonths, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next place, I had nohops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no copper or kettle tomake it boil; and yet, had not all these things intervened, I mean