The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and tobe set on shore on the coast of Coromandel: I readily agreed to that;for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as willappear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in ourship, and proved very useful fellows.

  From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering away S.and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no windat all, when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon,almost as deplorable as that before.

  It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N. and the 19th day ofMarch 1684--5, when we espied a sail, our course S.E. and by S. We soonperceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us; but couldnot at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a littlenearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit;and presently she fires a gun as a signal of distress. The weather waspretty good, wind at N.N.W. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speakwith her.

  We found her a ship of Bristol bound home from Barbadoes, but had beenblown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days before she was ready tosail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate wereboth gone on shore; so that beside the terror of the storm, they werebut in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship home; theyhad been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terriblestorm after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quite out oftheir knowledge to the westward, and in which they had lost their masts,as above; they told us, they expected to have seen the Bahama Islands,but were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong gale ofwind at N.N.W. the same that blew now, and having no sails to work theship with, but a main-course, and a kind of square sail upon ajury-foremast, which they had set up, they could not lie near the wind,but were endeavouring to stand away for the Canaries.

  But that which was worst of all, was, that they were almost starved forwant of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone; their breadand flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce left in the ship, andhad had none for eleven days; the only relief they had, was, their waterwas not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour left; theyhad sugar enough; some succades or sweetmeats they had at first, butthey were devoured; and they had seven casks of rum.

  There was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant, on board, who weregoing passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappilycame on board the evening before the hurricane began; and having noprovisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable conditionthan the rest; for the seamen, being reduced to such an extremenecessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for the poorpassengers; and they were indeed in a condition that their misery isvery hard to describe.

  I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, theweather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board the ship: thesecond mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, had been onboard our ship; and he told me indeed, that they had three passengers inthe great cabin, that they were in a deplorable condition; "Nay," sayshe, "I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing of them for abovetwo days; and I was afraid to inquire after them," said he, "for I hadnothing to relieve them with."

  We immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we couldspare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew, that Iwould have victualled them, though we had gone away to Virginia, or anypart of the coast of America, to have supplied ourselves; but there wasno necessity for that.

  But now they were in a new danger, for they were afraid of eating toomuch, even of that little we gave them. The mate or commander broughtsix men with him in his boat, but these poor wretches looked likeskeletons, and were so weak they could hardly sit to their oars; themate himself was very ill, and half-starved, for he declared he hadreserved nothing from the men, and went share and share alike with themin every bit they ate.

  I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him immediately,and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be sick, and outof order; so he stopped awhile, and our surgeon mixed him up somethingwith some broth, which he said would be to him both food and physic; andafter he had taken it, he grew better: in the meantime I forgot not themen; I ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures ratherdevoured than ate it; they were so exceeding hungry, that they were in amanner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them atewith so much greediness, that they were in danger of their lives thenext morning.

  The sight of these people's distress was very moving to me, and broughtto mind what I had a terrible respect of at my first coming on shore inmy island, where I had not the least mouthful of food, or any hopes ofprocuring it; besides the hourly apprehension I had of being made thefood of other creatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating tome the miserable condition of the ship's company, I could not put out ofmy thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in thegreat cabin; viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom he hadheard nothing of for two or three days; and whom he seemed to confessthey had wholly neglected, their own extremities being so great; bywhich I understood that they had really given them no food at all; andthat therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps onthe floor or deck of the cabin.

  As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board withhis men to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving crew thatwere left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship andwith my mate and twelve men to carry them a sack of bread, and four orfive pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to cause themeat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room,to prevent the men's taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the potbefore it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at atime; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwise havekilled themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose tosave their lives.

  At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and seewhat condition the poor passengers were in, and, if they were alive, tocomfort them and give them what refreshment was proper; and the surgeongave him a large pitcher with some of the prepared broth which he hadgiven the mate that was on board, and which he did not question wouldrestore them gradually.

  I was not satisfied with this; but, as I said above, having a great mindto see the scene of misery, which I knew the ship itself would presentme with, in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I tookthe captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went myselfa little after in their boat.

  I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals outof the boiler before it was ready; but my mate observed his order, andkept a good guard at the cook-room door; and the man he placed there,after using all possible persuasion to have patience, kept them off byforce: however, he caused some biscuit cakes to be dipped in the pot,and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they call brewis,and gave every one one, to stay their stomachs, and told them it was fortheir own safety that he was obliged to give them but little at a time.But it was all in vain, and had I not come on board, and their owncommander and officers with me, and with good words, and some threatsalso of giving them no more, I believe they would have broke into thecook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace; for wordsindeed are of a very small force to an hungry belly: however, wepacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously for the first time,and the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, andthe men did well enough.

  But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of anothernature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company hadso little for themselves, it was but too true, that they had at firstkept them very low, and at last totally neglected them; so that for sixor seven days, it might be said, they had really had no food at all, andfor several days before, very little.

  The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman of goodsense
and good breeding, had spared all she could get so affectionatelyfor her son, that at last she entirely sunk under it; and when the mateof our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or deck, with her back upagainst the sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and herhead sunk in between her shoulders, like a corpse, though not quitedead. My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with aspoon put some broth into her mouth; she opened her lips, and lifted upone hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he said, and madesigns to him, intimating, that it was too late for her; but pointed toher child, as if she would have said, they should take care of him.

  However, the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the sight, endeavouredto get some of the broth into her mouth; and, as he said, got two orthree spoonfuls down, though I question whether he could be sure of itor not; but it was too late, and she died the same night.

  The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most