by Daniel Defoe
Hewills me to be here. O, why hath God done this to me!"
Then some voice would seem to say, "Dost thou ask why God hath done thisto thee? Ask why thou wert not shot by the Moors, who came on board theship, and took the lives of thy mates. Ask why thou wert not torn by thebeasts of prey on the coasts. Ask why thou didst not go down in thedeep sea with the rest of the crew, but didst come to this isle, and artsafe."
A sound sleep then fell on me, and when I woke it must have been threeo'clock the next day, by the rays of the sun: nay, it may have been morethan that; for I think that this must have been the day that I did notmark on my post, as I have since found that there was one notch too few.
I now took from my store the Book of God's Word, which I had broughtfrom the wreck, not one page, of which I had yet read. My eyes fell onfive words, that would seem to have been put there for my good at thistime; so well did they cheer my faint hopes, and touch the true sourceof my fears. They were these: "I will not leave thee." And they havedwelt in my heart to this day. I laid down the book, to pray. My cry was"O, Lord, help me to love and learn thy ways."
This was the first time in all my life that I had felt a sense that Godwas near, and heard me. As for my dull life here, it was not worth athought; for now a new strength had come to me; and there was a changein my griefs, as well as in my joys.
I had now been in the isle twelve months, and I thought it was time togo all round it, in search of its woods, springs, and creeks. So I setoff, and brought back with me limes and grapes in their prime, large andripe. I had hung the grapes in the sun to dry, and in a few days' timewent to fetch them, that I might lay up a store. The vale, on the banksof which they grew, was fresh and green, and a clear, bright stream ranthrough it, which gave so great a charm to the spot, as to make me wishto live there.
But there was no view of the sea from this vale, while from my house, noships could come on my side of the isle, and not be seen by me; yet thecool, soft banks were so sweet and new to me that much of my time wasspent there.
In the first of the three years in which I had grown corn, I had sownit too late; in the next, it was spoilt by the drought; but the thirdyears' crop had sprung up well.
I found that the hares would lie in it night and day, for which therewas no cure but to plant a thick hedge all round it; and this took memore than three weeks to do. I shot the hares in the day time; and whenit grew dark, I made fast the dog's chain to the gate, and there hestood to bark all night.
In a short time the corn grew strong, and at last ripe but, just as thehares had hurt it in the blade, so now the birds ate it in the ear. Atthe noise of my gun, whole flocks of them would fly up; and at this rateI saw that there would be no corn left; so I made up my mind to keep alook out night and day. I hid by the side of a hedge, and could see thebirds sit on the trees and watch, and then come down, one by one, atfirst. Now each grain of wheat was, as it were, a small loaf of bread tome. So the great thing was to get rid of these birds. My plan was this,I shot three, and hung them up, like thieves, to scare all that came tothe corn; and from this time, as long as the dead ones hung there, nota bird came near. When the corn was ripe, I made a scythe out of theswords from the ship, and got in my crop.
Few of us think of the cost at which a loaf of bread is made. Of course,there was no plough here to turn up the earth, and no spade to dig itwith, so I made one with wood; but this was soon worn out, and for wantof a rake, I made use of the bough of a tree. When I had got the cornhome, I had to thrash it, part the grain from the chaff, and store itup. Then came the want of a mill to grind it, of sieves to clean it, andof yeast to make bread of it.
Still, my bread was made, though I had no tools; and no one could saythat I did not earn it, by the sweat of my brow. When the rain kept mein doors, it was good fun to teach my pet bird Poll to talk; but so mutewere all things round me, that the sound of my own voice made me start.
My chief wants now were jars, pots, cups, and plates, but I knew not howI could make them. At last I went in search of some clay, and found somea mile from my house; but it was quite a joke to see the queer shapesand forms that I made out of it. For some of my pots and jars were tooweak to bear their own weight; and they would fall out here, and inthere, in all sorts of ways; while some, when they were put in the sunto bake, would crack with the heat of its rays. You may guess what myjoy was when at last a pot was made which would stand the heat of thefire, so that I could boil the meat for broth.
The next thing to be made was a sieve, to part the grain from the husks.Goat's hair was of no use to me, as I could not weave or spin; so I madea shift for two years with a thin kind of stuff, which I had broughtfrom the ship. But to grind the corn with the stones was the worst ofall, such hard work did I find it. To bake the bread I burnt some wooddown to an ash, which I threw on the hearth to heat it, and then set myloaves on the hearth, and in this way my bread was made.
The next thing to turn my thoughts to was the ship's boat, which lay onthe high ridge of sand, where it had been thrust by the storm which hadcast me on these shores. But it lay with the keel to the sky, so I hadto dig the sand from it, and turn it up with the help of a pole. When Ihad done this I found it was all in vain, for I had not the strength tolaunch it. So all I could do now, was to make a boat of less size outof a tree; and I found one that was just fit for it, which grew not farfrom the shore, but I could no more stir this than I could the ship'sboat. What was to be done? I first dug the ground flat and smooth allthe way from the boat to the sea, so as to let it slide down; but thisplan did not turn out well, so I thought I would try a new way, whichwas to make a trench, so as to bring the sea up to the boat, as the boatcould not be brought to the sea. But to do this, I must have dug down toa great depth, which would take one man some years to do. And when toolate, I found it was not wise to work out a scheme, till I had firstthought of the cost and toil.
"Well," thought I, "I must give up the boat, and with it all my hopesto leave the isle. But I have this to think of: I am lord of the wholeisle; in fact, a king. I have wood with which I might build a fleet, andgrapes, if not corn, to freight it with, though all my wealth is but afew gold coins." For these I had no sort of use, and could have found itin my heart to give them all for a peck of peas and some ink, which lastI stood much in need of. But it was best to dwell more on what I had,than on what I had not.
I now must needs try once more to build a boat, but this time it was tohave a mast, for which the ship's sails would be of great use. I made adeck at each end, to keep out the spray of the sea, a bin for my food,and a rest for my gun, with a flap to screen it from the wet. More thanall, the boat was one of such a size that I could launch it.
My first cruise was up and down the creek, but soon I got bold, and madethe whole round of my isle. I took with me bread, cakes, and a pot fullof rice, some rum, half a goat, two great coats, one of which was tolie on, and one to put on at night. I set sail in the sixth year of myreign. On the East side of the isle, there was a large ridge of rocks,which lay two miles from the shore; and a shoal of sand lay for half amile from the rocks to the beach. To get round to this point, I had tosail a great way out to sea; and here I all but lost my life.
But I got back to my home at last. On my way there, quite worn out withthe toils of the boat, I lay down in the shade to rest my limbs, andslept. But judge, if you can, what a start I gave, when a voice wokeme out of my sleep, and spoke my name three times! A voice in this wildplace! To call me by name, too! Then the voice said, "Where are you?Where have you been? How came you here?" But now I saw it all; for atthe top of the hedge sat Poll, who did but say the words she had beentaught by me.
I now went in search of some goats, and laid snares for them, with ricefor a bait I had set the traps in the night, and found they had allstood, though the bait was gone. So I thought of a new way to take them,which was to make a pit and lay sticks and grass on it, so as to hideit; and in this way I caught an old goat and some kids. But the old goatwas much too fierce for me, so I let
him go. I brought all the youngones home, and let them fast a long time, till at last they fed from myhand, and were quite tame. I kept them in a kind of park, in which therewere trees to screen them from the sun. At first my park was three milesround; but it struck me that, in so great a space, the kids would soonget as wild as if they had the range of the whole vale, and that itwould be as well to give them less room; so I had to make a hedge whichtook me three months to plant. My park held a flock of twelve goats, andin two years more there were more than two score.
My dog sat at meals with me, and one cat on each side of me, on stools,and we had Poll to talk to us. Now for a word or two as to the dress inwhich I made a tour round the isle. I could but think how droll it wouldlook in the streets of the town in which I was born. I wore a high capof goat's skin, with a flap that hung, down, to keep the sun and rainfrom my neck, a coat made from the skin of a goat too,