The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

in three places, and, as I might say, three townswere begun to be planted.

  And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens inthe world, (what the wise ends of God's providences are in such adisposition of things I cannot say) the two honest fellows had the twoworst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging,that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselvesgood, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, andingenious wives, not that the two first were ill wives as to theirtemper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive,and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaningis, they were not alike, capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alikecleanly and neat.

  Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent applicationon the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idletemper on the other, that when I came to the place, and viewed theseveral improvements, planting, and management of the several littlecolonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was nocomparison; they had indeed both of them as much ground laid out forcorn as they wanted; and the reason was, because according to my rule,nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than theywanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of thefences, and indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view.

  The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, thatwhen you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a wood; andthough they had their plantation twice demolished, once by their owncountrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shewn in its place; yetthey had restored all again, and every thing was flourishing andthriving about them: they had grapes planted in order, and managed likea vineyard, though they had themselves never seen any thing of thatkind; and by their good ordering their vines their grapes were as goodagain as any of the others. They had also formed themselves a retreat inthe thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a naturalcave, as I had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of theirhands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, theysecured their wives and children so as they could never be found; theyhaving, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, asI said, grow so easily, made a grove impassable except in one place,where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in byways of their own leaving.

  As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were muchcivilized by their new settlement compared to what they were before, andwere not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of thecertain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that wastheir idleness. It is true, they planted corn and made fences; butSolomon's words were never better verified than in them: "I went by thevineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;" for whenthe Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in someplaces for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goatshad gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bushwas crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was onlyshutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when theylooked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face ofindustry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seenin all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on theother hand, verified Solomon's words in another place: "The diligenthand maketh rich;" for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plentywithin and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, moreutensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure anddiversion too.

  It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly withindoors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and cooking fromone of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a cook's mate on boardthe ship, they dressed their husbands' victuals very nicely; whereas theother could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, whoas I said, had been cook's mate, did it himself; but as for the husbandsof the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, andcaught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they faredaccordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothfullived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is allover the world.

  But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened before,either to them or me; and the origin of the story was this:

  Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of Indians, orsavages, call them which you please; and there is no room to doubt thatthey came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but thatpart was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, that theydid not concern themselves about it as I did; but having been madesensible by their experience, that their only business was to lieconcealed, and that, if they were not seen by any of the savages, theywould go off again quietly when the business was done, having as yet notthe least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; I sayhaving been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to givenotice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not toshew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give noticewhen the boats went off to sea again.

  This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all thesemeasures, and made it known among the savages that there wereinhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of almost thewhole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone off, theSpaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the curiosity to goto the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. Here,to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lyingfast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed they had either been sogorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep,and would not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into thewoods, and did not come back in time to be taken in.

  The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at aloss what to do; the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them,and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not what to do; asfor slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, they werenone of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me they couldnot think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatureshad done no wrong, invaded none of their property; and they thought theyhad no just quarrel against them to take away their lives.

  And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that let allthe accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, Inever met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any foreigncountry, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so verygood-humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty,they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, nobarbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men of greatcourage and spirit.

  Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the insufferableusage of the three Englishmen; and their justice and humanity appearednow in the case of the savages as above. After some consultation theyresolved upon this, that they would lie still a while longer, till, ifpossible, these three men might be gone; but then the governor Spaniardrecollected that the three savages had no boat; and that if they wereleft to rove about the island, they would certainly discover that therewere inhabitants in it, and so they should be undone that way.

  Upon this they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleepstill; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them prisoners; andthey did so. The poor fellows were strangely frighted when they wereseized upon and bound, and afraid, like the women, that they should bemurdered and eaten; for it seems those people think all the world do asthey do, eating mens' flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that:and away they carried them.

  It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to theircastle; I mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them firstto the bower, where was the chief of their country work; such as thekeeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterwards theycarried them to the habitation of the two Englishmen.


  Here they were set to work, though it was not much, they had for them todo; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that theythought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not, but one ofthem ran away, and taking into the woods, they could never hear ofhim more.

  They had good reason to believe he got home again soon after in someother boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore three or four weeksafterwards, and who, carrying on their revels as usual, went off againin two days time. This thought terrified them exceedingly; for theyconcluded, and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellowgot safe home among his comrades, he would certainly give them anaccount that there were people in the island, as also how weak and fewthey were; for this savage, as I observed before, had never been told,as it was very happy he had not, how many they were, or where theylived, nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, muchless had they