Литагент «АСТ»c9a05514-1ce6-11e2-86b3-b737ee03444a Робинзон Крузо. Robinson Crusoe АСТ Москва 2015 978-5-17-085639-8

Даниэль Дэфо / Daniel Defoe

Робинзон Крузо / Robinson Crusoe

Адаптация текста, упражнения, комментарии и словарь Н. Д. Анашиной

© Н. Д. Анашина, адаптация текста, упражнения, комментарии, словарь

Chapter 1

Start in Life

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York. That was my mother’s hometown, because she also was born there, in a family of Robinson’s. They were very old and gentle family of York’s faubourg,[1] from whom I was called Robinson. My father, bored the name Kreutznaer, was German from Bremen. He earned his bread[2] by trading, and, when his case went to the mountain,[3] he moved to England, York. There he met my mother and later they got married. Eventually, the surname Kreutznaer grown into the Crusoe, by the usual corruption of words in England. Therefore, everyone calls me Robinson Crusoe.

I had two elder brothers. One of them went to the army, despite of my father’s prohibitions, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk. What became of the second brother we never knew, he was missing.

From my childhood I dreamed about the adventures and pirates. I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea.

Being the third son of my family, I wasn’t high-educated person. My father had given me house-education and country free school that was enough to be a lawyer.[4]

When I grow up, my childish dreams of the sea turned into the real wish of becoming a captain, or a sailor at least. Oh, how the sea haunted my dreams that days!

My father, being a wise and grave man, guessed my intentions.[5] One morning he called me into his chamber. He asked me very warmly not to left father’s home and not to repeat the fate of my elder brothers in a search of adventures. “You don’t have to earn your bread”, he said, “I’ll give you enough money to stay at your native country, become a lawyer, and get marriage. You are only eighteen, and I don’t want to lose my third son, when he is so young”. But I didn’t listen to him. He promised me a life of ease and pleasure, but I was going to a life of risky adventures and trying the fortune.

However, I was sincerely[6] affected with my father’s discourse, and decided to wait with the final decision of my future life. I resolved not to think of going abroad one year more, but to settle at home, according to my father’s desire. That was a time, when I was trying myself in the different fields of learning, trying to find a profession that would be close to me. But my searches had been unsuccessful. It turned out, that I had no abilities to any crafts.[7] After that, I had finally decided to link my future life with[8] the sea. However, I could not left my parent’s home without their approval.[9]

One day, when my mother was in a good mood, I asked her for the help.

“Oh, mom, I’ll soon be nineteen years old, and it is too late to become a lawyer or clerk, I have no abilities to any crafts. I see no ways to make living, but go to sea. Please, speak to my father to let me go abroad and become a mariner!”

This put my mother into a great passion.[10] She wondered how I could think in this way after the discourse I had had with my father, and such a kind and tender expression as she knew my father had used to me.

“Neither I, nor your father will bless you. If you don’t obey our advice, we will not take part in your future” – she said.

But for that moment, my decision was enough strong, and adrift, my wishes turned into the real life.

Being one day at Hull, where I went casually, I met one of my companions. He was about to sail to London in his father’s ship. He prompted me to go with him, promising that it should cast me nothing for my passage.[11] I consulted neither father nor mother about this voyage, even nor so much, as sent them a letter of it.

In an ill hour,[12] God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.

The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise. I had never been at sea before, so it seemed to me, that the ship was caught in a heavy storm and will drown in a minute. The pitching[13] was so strong, that I could barely stand on my feet, the nausea stepped up to the throat.[14] I thought, that were the last minutes of my life. And only then I realized what I’ve done: all the good counsels of my parents, my father’s tears and my mother’s entreaties,[15] came fresh into my mind.

I swore to myself that if I could stay alive, I’ll come back to my parents in repentance[16] and spend all the entire life near parents in my family home. At that moment in my mind has already appeared the picture from the biblical story “Return of the prodigal son”.[17]

These wise and sober[18] thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted, and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer. However, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed. The sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that ever I saw.

I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion comes to me: “Well, Rob,” says he, clapping me upon the shoulder,[19] “how do you do after it? Were you freighted, last night, when it blew a capful of wind?” “A capful do you call it?” said I, “That was a terrible storm!” “A storm?!” replied he, “do you call that a storm? Why? It was nothing at all; give us a good ship and sea-room,[20] and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you are a fresh-water sailor, Rob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we’ll forget all that! Do you see what charming weather it is now?”

To make short this sad part of my story, we went the way of all sailors; the punch was made and I was made half drunk with it: and in that one night’s wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the future.

The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads. These Roads are the common harbor, where the ships might wait the tailwind.[21] Here we came to an anchor[22] for seven or eight days. During this time many ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads.

But the wind blew to fresh, and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. However, the crew of our ship was absolutely calm: the Yarmouth Roads are known as the safest place; there is no more danger there, than in any other harbor. Moreover, our ship had the good anchor, and our ground-tackle[23] very strong. So, our men spent all the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea.

But the eight day, in the morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our topmasts,[24] and make everything close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible.

By noon the sea went very high. Once or twice we thought, that our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet-anchor,[25] so that we rode with two anchors ahead.

By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed. Anyone may judge, what a condition I must been in at all this, who was such a young sailor, and was so frightened in a first little storm. But not the fear of death scared me. It seemed like a Providence punishment.[26] I had broken my oath, which I gave during the first storm. Now it seemed clear, what fate awaits me, if I don’t return home. And these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition, that I have no words to describe it.

During the first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, but in the next time I heard as the master went in and out of his cabin by me, saying softly several times a minute “Lord, be merciful to us![27] We shall be all lost! We shall be all undone!” and the like. I got up out of my cabin and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw. I saw terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. The sea ran mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes.

Towards evening the mate and boatswain[28] asked the master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-mast.[29] When they had cut it away, the main mast[30] shook the ship so much, that they were obliged to cut that away also, and make a clear deck.

Two more ships, that were standing near us, drived from their anchors[31] and were run out of the Roads to sea, at all adventures, without any masts. The similar fate awaited for us. The boatswain, the master, and some others more sensible than the rest were praying, expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom.

In the middle of the night we found out the leak in a hold.[32] One of the men that had been down to see cried out, that there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. We worked all night long, but the water kept coming. It was clear, that the ship would founder; and though the storm began to fall off a little, but it was impossible to keep afloat till we might run into any port. So the master began firing guns for help.[33]

The light ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, sent a boat to help us. But it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship’s side. All the men in the boat were rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives[34] to save ours. Finally, we extended them a rope[35] so they managed to swim very close to the board of our ship, and we got all into their boat. It was no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let the boat drive on it’s own, and only to pull it in towards shore as much as we could.

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship, till we saw its sink.[36] Only then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.

When our boat was mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore. A huge number of people gathered on the beach to help us as soon as we moored to the bank.[37] But we made a very slow way towards the shore. Only when we past the lighthouse[38] at Winterton, we found ourselves in a small bay near the Cromer, where the wind was a little quieter. Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth.

As unfortunate men been in the shipwreck,[39] we were used with great humanity there. The townspeople gave us houses to leave, and by the particular merchants and owners of ships we had enough money to carry either to London or back to Hull as we wanted.

My comrade, who was the master’s son, and who prompted me to go with him on his father’s ship to London, was now less forward then I. At Yarmouth we were separated in the town to several quarters, so the first time he spoke to me after the shipwreck was not till two or three days, of our staying in town. He asked me how I did, looking very melancholy and shaking his head.[40] He told his father who I was, and how I had come to this voyage only for a trial, in order to go further abroad.

His father turned to me with a very grave and concerned tone: “Young man,” said he, “you ought never to go to sea anymore; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man.”

“Why, sir,” said I, “will you go to sea no more?”

“That is another case,” said he; “it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage on trial, you see what a taste Heaven[41] has given”, continues he, “what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?” Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion:[42] “What had I done,” said he, “that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the same ship even for a thousand pounds!”

I saw him later, and he repeated his words: “Young man, if you don’t go back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing, but disasters and disappointments, till your father’s words are fulfilled upon you”.

I saw him no more. Which way he went I knew not.

From Yarmouth I went to London with my own, by land. I had enough money in my pocket for this way. As well as on the road, I had many struggles with myself, what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home or to sea. The first reason, that I didn’t want to return home, was the fear to be laughed at among the neighbours,[43] and should be ashamed to see not my father and mother only, but even everybody else.

Time went on, and the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and I began looking out for a new voyage. Just in those days there was a great opportunity to go to the new voyage aboard the ship, bound to the west coast of Africa, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.

It was a big success for me first of all to fall into pretty good company in London. In the port I met the master of a ship who had already been on the cost of Guinea, and we become friends. His first trip to the west coast of Africa was very successful, so he resolved to go again. Without false modesty[44] I can say that I am a pleasant companion, therefore this captain was taking a fancy to my conversation. Hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, he told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no expense, and if I could carry anything with me to sale, I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit.

I had enough money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back, so I went to that voyage not as a sailor, but as a simple passenger. I would always go on board in the habit of a gentlemen and so I neither had any business in the ship, nor learned to do any. I might indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast man,[45] and in time might have qualified myself for a mate of lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here.

I decided to follow the advice of the captain, to carry something for trading with me to Guinea, so I asked my relations, whom I corresponded with, for some money. They sent to me 40 pounds, and I carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably;[46] for I carried all my money in such toys and trifles[47] as the captain directed me to buy.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my adventures, which I owe to the honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s course,[48] take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant.

Our trading in Guinea was upon the coast line. I had my misfortunes even in this voyage. I was continually sick, being thrown into a violet calenture[49] by the excessive heat of the climate.

Chapter II

Slavery and Escape

Recovering, I went to London with all the crew and our master. This voyage was very successful to us, all the crew members returned home grown rich. Even my 40 pounds turned into 300 pounds sterling. This first success elated me and I resolved to go to the same voyage again. However, one event overshadowed[50] those days: to my great misfortune, my friend, the master of our ship, was dying soon after the arrival, though I was deprived of the faithful and honest comrade.

When I decided for the second time to set the sail, I found the widow of my deceased friend, captain, and left her 200 pounds for safekeeping, and I must say, she preserved this money very faithfully. So, I did not carry quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth with me to the new voyage.

That was the unhappiest trip that ever man made. Our ship, making her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover[51] of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail he could make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread,[52] or our masts carry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up with us[53] and entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and rigging.[54] We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our ship was disabled, and three of our men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,[55] and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.

Most of our men were carried up the country to the emperor’s court or to the slave market. However, in those days I was young, strong, nimble[56] and smart fellow, so my fate was not as abysmal as the rest crew: I was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his own slave. At this surprising change of my fate, from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed;[57] and now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic[58] discourse to me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me.

My new patron, or master, had taken me to his house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again. I believed, that it would some time, when this sea rover will be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man-of-war, and that then I should be set at liberty.

But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the common domestic things about his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin on board to look after the ship.

For two long years I had been a miserable slave of my patron, and all my thoughts were only about the escape and release. Most of time I spent on land, looking after the master’s household. I left the land only on the rare occasions, when my patron went on a fishing trip. He used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to take the ship and go out into the road a-fishing. I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes patron took me and young boy Xury, as they called him, to row the boat and to help him fishing.

Two or three times we went into a long voyage that we were two leagues from the shore, because farther from the coast line we could caught larger fish. We usually went for such a trip by our English ship, that pirate, our master, had taken. We never went a-fishing without a compass and some provision. In the middle of the long-boat, in our ship, there were a state-room, and this cabin had been served as a buffet. In this buffet were stored baskets of sea biscuits, bread, rice and coffee. Every time there were about eight or ten bottles of the port wine and liquor as the master thought to drink. The reason of such a foresight and thrifty[59] of our master, was one incident that occurred shortly before.

It happened one time, that going a-fish in a calm morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; we laboured all day, and all the next night and we knew not whither or which way; and when the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour[60] and some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but we were all very hungry.

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of himself for the future, therefore took all the measures to stock up with provisions and drinks. In this way, that minor incident gave me a good turn.

Since then, my thoughts of escape became stronger than ever before. I began to prepare to flee.[61]

One day it happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place,[62] and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command. I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage.

All the gunpowder and bullets were kept on pirate’s man-of-war,[63] by which he usually went on looting. So, the master ordered the Moor, called Ismael, who guarded the ship, to give me everything for fowling. And then I went on a little trick. I called to Moor – “Moely,” said I (everyone called Ismael Muley, or Moely), “our patron’s guns are on board of his English ship, can you not get a little more powder and shot? It may be we kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews[64]) for ourselves, for I know we must not presume to eat of our patron’s bread. We can divide all the prey equally!”

“Yes,” says he, “I’ll bring some;” and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, which held a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all aboard the ship.

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax[65] into the boat, which weighed about half a hundred-weight, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax, to make candles.

I got all things ready and waited the next morning on a board, washed clean, ready to sail; when my patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going from some business that fell out, and ordered me, with the boy, Xury, as usual, to go out with ship and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup[66] at his house, and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring it home to his house.

So, I went out to sea alone, out of the port to fish, on board of a ship full of supplies, furnished with everything needful, accompanied only by young Xury and Luck.

The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of us; and we were not above a mile out of the port before we set us down to fish.

After we had fished some time and caught nothing – for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, I said to the Xury, “This will not do; our master will not be served; we must stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm,[67] agreed, and being in the head of the ship, set the sails.

When we were about two miles above the shore, I took the gun out of the cabin and went to Xury. When he saw the gun in my hands, a fear reflected on his face. I touched his shoulder and said to him,

“Xury, if you will be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will not be true to me, I must kill you.” The boy smiled in my face, the fear in his eyes immediately disappeared, and spoke so innocently that I could not distrust him, he swore to be faithful to me,[68] and go all over the world with me.

So, I enlisted the full support of Xury and became a full captain of our ship, and a master of one-person crew. In fear, that our ex-patron, pirate from Sallee, could sent us the chase,[69] I decided to make one trick: while our ship was in view from the coast line, I stood out directly to sea with the ship, that they might think me gone towards the Strait of Gibraltar[70] (as indeed any one must have been supposed to do).

But as soon as it grew dusk[71] in the evening, I changed my course, and sailed directly south and by east, bending my course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fresh wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,[72] I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south of Sallee.

During the next five or six days the tail-wind continued to blow, though I would not stop, or come to an anchor and go on shore, yet such was the fright I had taken of Moors. I concluded, that if any of them were in chase of me, they would now give over, therefore I decided to sail near the coast line.

We sailed along the coast of Africa, close to the shore. Sometimes we heard lions and other wild beasts. We needed fresh water, but we were afraid to go ashore, for fear of wild beasts and savages.[73] However, one day, I came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, nor where, neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river. The principal thing I wanted was fresh water.

We came into the small bay in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the barking and roaring of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds. We decided to stay aboard till day, and in the morning to go ashore with two guns, some powder and shot. We were afraid not only about lions and other wild beasts, but moreover about men, who could be as bad to us as all wild creatures.

We dropped our little anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings,[74] that I never indeed heard the like.

But we were both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it was a lion, and I said it might be so. I had no sooner said so, but I saw the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’ length,[75] which something surprised me; however, I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shore again.

But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries and howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before.

However, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left on a board; when and where to get to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. He said that I should stay aboard.

“Why should you go, Xury?” I asked. “Why should I not go, and you wait aboard?”

Xury replied in words that made me love him ever after: “If wild men come, they will eat me, and you will escape.”

“Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go and if the wild men come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread[76] to eat, and a dram[77] out of our patron’s case of bottles which I mentioned before; and we moored our ship to the shore as we thought was proper,[78] and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but our arms and two jars for water.

I did not want to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild beasts.

So we filled our jars, and feasted[79] on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country.

As I had been one voyage to this coast of Africa before, I knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded, I should find some of their vessels[80] upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.

Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,[81] being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out,[82] in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore.

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water. At once, we came to an anchor under a little point of land. Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; “For,” says he, “look, yonder[83] lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore,[84] and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs.[85] I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second piece immediately, and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore. “Well, go,” said I: so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece[86] to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which dispatched him quite.

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. Xury and I took the skin off the lion, for I thought it might be of some value.

We sailed along the coast for ten or twelve days. I sailed near the shore because we need a lot of water to drink and also in the reason, that I hoped that we would meet a European trading ship and be saved, but we did not meet one.

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive that their skin was black, and they were naked. Once I thought of going ashore to meet them, but Xury advised against it. I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons in their hand, except one, who had a long slender stick,[87] which Xury said was a lance,[88] and that they could throw them a great way with good aim;[89] so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could; and particularly made signs for something to eat: they beckoned[90] to me to stop my ship, and they would fetch me some meat. They brought meat and grain and left it on the beach for us. I made signs to thank them but had nothing to give them in payment.

However, we soon had the chance to do them a great service. Just as we reached our boat, a leopard came running down from the mountain towards the beach. I shot it dead. The Negroes were amazed and terrified by the sound of my gun. When they saw that the leopard was dead, they approached him. They wished to eat the flesh of this animal. I made signs to tell them that they could have him and they began cutting him up. They cut off his skin and gave it to us.

I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and leaving my friendly negroes, I made forward for about eleven days more.

One day, I stepped into the cabin and sat down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, “Master, master, a ship with a sail!” and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master’s ships sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but that it was a Portuguese ship; and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for negroes. But, when I observed the course she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with them if possible.

With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any signal to them: but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw by the help of their glasses that it was some European ship, that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my patron’s ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and in about three hours; time I came up with them.

They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them; but at last a Scotch sailor, who was on board, called to me: and I answered him, and told him I was an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, at Sallee; they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.

It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told me he would take nothing from me, but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils. “For,” says he, “I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition. He said that my property would be returned to me when we arrived. He offered to buy my boat from me. He paid me eighty pieces of eight, this is a kind of silver coins,[91] two pieces of eight could buy a horse, so eighty pieces was a real treasure for me! He also offered me sixty pieces of eight for Xury, but I didn’t want to sell him. Xury had helped me to escape from slavery, so I didn’t want him to become a poor slave again. However, the captain offered to set Xury free in ten years, if he became a Christian. The boy said he was willing to go with captain, so I let the master have him.

We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints’ Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do next with myself I was to consider.

The generous treatment[92] the captain gave me I can never enough remember: he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard’s skin, and forty for the lion’s skin, which I had in my boat, and caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me; and what I was willing to sell he bought of me, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax – for I had made candles of the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo;[93] and with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils.

I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a good honest man like himself, who had an INGENIO, as they call it (that is, a plantation and a sugar-house). I lived with him some time, and acquainted myself[94] by that means with the manner of planting and making of sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there,[95] I would turn planter among them: resolving in the meantime to find out some way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me. To this purpose, getting a kind of letter of naturalisation,[96] I purchased as much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement; such as one as might be suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to receive from England.

I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances[97] as I was. I call him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably together. My stock[98] was but low, as well as his; and we rather planted for food than anything else, for about two years. However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so that the third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come. But we both wanted help; and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting with my boy Xury.

Chapter III

Wrecked on a Desert Island

I was not happy in my new life. This was the middle state of which my father had spoken. I often said to myself, that I could have done this at home, instead of coming about five thousand miles to do it among strangers and savages. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island,[99] that had nobody there but himself. I thought I was like a man stranded alone upon an island. Never compare your situation to a worse one! God may place you in the worse situation, so that you long for your old life! I say, God just to leave me on an island, where I really was alone! If I had been content to stay as I was, I would have been rich and happy. By living me on an island, God made me understand this.

My new friend, the captain of the Portuguese ship advised me to send for some money, that I had left in London, as you remember, for safekeeping to the widow of my deceased friend, captain of English ship. I wrote the widow a letter, asking to send me only the half of my money, about 100 pounds. My new friend advised her to send me the money in the form of English goods. When they arrived, I thought that my fortune was made. I sold the goods at a great profit[100] for about four hundred pounds. As soon as I got this money, I bought myself a Negro slave.

I went on the next year with great success in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundredweight. And now increasing in business and wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach.

After four years, I had learnt the language and made some friends among my fellow planters. I had not only learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance[101] and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port. I told them of the trade in Negro Slaves on the African coast, known as Guinea and that, in my discourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of my two voyages: the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase[102] upon the coast for trifles – such as beads,[103] toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like – not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants’ teeth, but negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers. They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying of negroes.

It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of them came to me next morning, and told me they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining me to secrecy,[104] they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants; they desired to make one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a word, the question was whether I would go with them in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should have my equal share of the negroes, without spending any money.[105] So, I agreed to go. In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to keep up my plantation.

I went aboard the ship, sailed to Guinea, on the 1st September 1659, exactly eight years after my first voyage from Hull, when our board was shipwrecked. We sailed up the coast to Cape St Augustino, when we lost sight of land. Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden,[106] carried six guns and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. We had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes.

In the course, we passed the line in about twelve days’ time, and were, by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane,[107] took us quite out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came about to the north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding away[108] before it, let it carry us whither, and, during these twelve days, I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives.

We could understand, that this terrible storm blew us far away from the trading routes. We couldn’t observe neither latitude, nor longitude, we understand, if we came to land, we would probably be eaten by savages.

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men early in the morning cried out, “Land!” and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven – whether an island or the main,[109] whether inhabited or not inhabited. Than the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray[110] of the sea. As the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking into pieces.

We could not move the ship off the sand. We climbed into a boat and left the ship. We rowed through that wild water towards the land, knowing that we were rowing towards our greatest danger. What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal,[111] we knew not. The only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of expectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water.

After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us. This one separating us as well from the boat as from one another, gave us no time to say, “O God!” for we were all swallowed up in a moment.

Though I was a good swimmer, I could not get my breath in this stormy sea. The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness[112] towards the shore – a very great way; but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that I could keep myself so yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath, and new courage.

I felt the earth under my feet. I run towards the shore, but twice more the waves came over me. The last time nearly killed me. The sea threw me hard against a rock. I held on to the rock as the next wave broke over me. When the wave withdrew,[113] I ran to the beach, climbed over the rocks, and lay down on the grass.

Chapter IV

First Weeks on the Island

I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved. I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the transports of the soul are, when it is so saved. I can’t describe the joy of myself, who has just escaped death.

I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.

I cast my eye to the ship, when, the breach and froth of the sea being so big,[114] I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore

I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I was in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger[115] or being eaten by wild beasts. Moreover, I had no gun with which to hunt for food or defend myself. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions; and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mind, that for a while I ran about like a madman.

Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy heart to consider what would be if there were any wild beasts in that country, as at night they always come ashore.

I walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, I put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger. I considered to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life.

I went to the tree, and getting up into it, tried to place myself so that if I should sleep I might not fall. I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in my condition, and found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, I ever was on such an occasion.

When I awoke, the sun was shining. The waves had moved the ship closer to the shore during the night. I realized that if we had stayed on board that terrible day, we would all have survived the storm. This thoughts made the tears run down my face. The ship was being within about a mile from the shore where I was, and it seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that at least I might save some necessary things for my use.

When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat, which lay, as the wind and the sea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the shore till I got her. I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship by this boat.

A little after noon I found the sea very calm, so I sat into the boat, and went into the sea, in a strong wish of reaching the board of the ship.

But when I came to the ship my difficulty was to know how to get on board; for, as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a small piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hung down by the fore-chains so low, as that with great difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope I got up into the forecastle[116] of the ship.

Here I found that the ship was bulged,[117] and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search, and to see what was spoiled[118] and what was free. And, first, I found that all the ship’s provisions were dry and untouched by the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had, indeed, need enough of to spirit me for what was before me.

I first laid all the planks or boards upon it that I could get, and having considered well what I most wanted, I got three of the seamen’s chests, which I had broken open, and emptied, and lowered them into my boat; the first of these I filled with provisions – bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat’s flesh (which we lived much upon).

I found enough of clothes on board, but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had others things which my eye was more upon – as, first, tools to work with on shore. And it was after long searching that I found out the carpenter’s chest,[119] which was, indeed, a very useful prize to me. I got it down to my boat, whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.

My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were two very good fowling-pieces[120] in the great cabin, and two pistols. These I secured first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water. Those two I got to my raft with the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore with them.

I got into the boat, full over with all the goods, clothes, ammunition and arms and returned to the shore, by puddles. A short distance from where I had landed the night before, I saw a river. I landed the boat a little way up the river and got all my goods on shore.

My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods to secure them from whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent or on an island; whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts or not. There was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after I had with great labour and difficulty got to the top, I found that I was in an island environed every way with the sea: no land to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great way off; and two small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither when I killed them could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, and every one according to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day. What to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where to rest, for I was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was really no need for those fears.

However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round with the chest and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of hut for that night’s lodging.

Next day I began aboard the ship with the canvas. Cutting the great piece of canvas into smaller sailclothes parts, such as I could move, I got two big linen on shore, with all the ironwork I could get. I thought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually that nothing more could be found, however, one day I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which I found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissors, with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks.

During the next thirteen days I had been eleven times on board the ship. I think that if the weather had remained calm I would have brought the whole ship away piece by piece. Every day I went aboard the ship and brought a lot of good things to the shore. Finally, there was nothing more to take out of the ship. And I began to take pieces of the ship itself. I carried to the shore everything I could: such as pieces of iron, rope, nail.

I had been now thirteen days on shore, working all the day very hard. The most part of the day I spent in the sea, aboard the ship, or ashore, trying to pack all the goods and to system them. To protect all the things, especially ammunition and arms (all the powder I had) from the water, I built something like tent or hovel, with the biggest pieces of linen and some tarpaulin.

My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to make – whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth; and, in short, I resolved upon both.

First of all I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground, because I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settlement, because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it.

I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would he proper for me: first, health and fresh water, I just now mentioned; secondly, shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether man or beast; fourthly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet. In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top. On the one side of the rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave but there was not really any cave or way into the rock at all.

First of all I built a high fence round the plain, where I was going to settle. In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground. This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth. The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, but by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me. After that I felt myself completely safe.

The next step was to built a strong tent to protect myself and all the goods from the ship. So, I made a large tent, which to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there, and from the scorching rays of the sun; I made double – one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it; and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among the sails. Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores.

And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship. Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that would spoil by the wet.

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and, in a week, I made a big cave, which called – kitchen, where I’ve kept all the food from the ship I had – biscuits, jerked flesh, barrels of rum, a few sugar and tobacco. But I must observe, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth. For it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I worked sideways, so I made a through hole in the hill, in that way, that there were the door to my kitchen on the other side of the hill. This gave me not only egress and regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to store my goods.

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see if I could kill anything fit for food. The first time I went out, I presently discovered that there were goats in the island, which was a great satisfaction to me, but they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them.

After I had been about ten or twelve days on the Island, it came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters – and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed – “I came on shore here on the 30th September 1659.” Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.

Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship – I say, giving over these things, I begun to apply myself to arrange my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I could. So I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do several things, with so much pleasure without a table: so I went to work.

And here I must needs observe, that every man may be, in time, become a master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had tools. I think, that such things like a table, a chair or shelves in buffet, were never made that way before, and that with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I brought it to be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this method I could make but one board out of a whole tree.

However, I made me a table and a chair, and after that I made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over another all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails and ironwork on; and, in a word, to separate everything at large into their places, that I might come easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang up; so that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general magazine of all necessary things; and had everything so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great.

I thought about my situation a lot. In the storm our ship was shipwrecked hundreds of miles away from the European trading routes. So, I thought it was Providence willing, that I should spend the rest of my life on this miserable island. I seemed hardly rational to be thankful for such a life, being separated from the other people and civilization by the ocean and maybe hundreds of miles; for many times I asked myself why God chose to ruin his creatures. However, one day, I was walking across the coast line with my gun, when I thought at the first time: “Certainly, I am miserable, but what happened to the others? I alone was fortunate enough to survive. Is it better to be on this inhabited island, or at the bottom of the sea?” After such a thinks I thought how well-equipped I was to survive on the island. What would have happened to me if the ship had not been blown closer to shore? That gave me a chance to take all the provision, ammunition, army, tools from the ship. How would I have lived without all of them? All this thoughts made my mind turned into the thankful behavior. In this way, thanking and blessing God, I spent the first year on the island, working very hard, and preying a lot. I forgot to mention before that among the things I took from the ship were some Catholic prayer books and three Bibles. Moreover, in the captain’s cabin I found a big bottle of ink, about ten pens, a lot of paper for maps and observations that miraculously stayed dry, and two logbooks. So, after a year of living on an island, staying all the time alone, without communication, I decided to keep a diary. I allowed myself to write not rather, than once a week, to save the ink and paper, recording only the significant events or discoveries. Here are some examples of my writings.

NOV. 4. – This morning I began to order my times of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion – viz. every morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain; then employed myself to work till about eleven o’clock; then eat what I had to live on; and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being excessively hot; and then, in the evening, to work again.

NOV. 25. – This day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing; every creature that I killed I took of the skins and preserved them. Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not understand; but was surprised, and almost frightened, with two or three seals, which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing what they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that time.

DEC. 13. – This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, and cooled the earth; but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger. The next three days I spent in making little square chests, or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two pounds at most, of powder; and so, putting the powder in, I stowed it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible. On one of these three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat, but I knew not what to call it.

DEC. 27. – Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that I caught it and led it home in a string; when I had it at home, I bound and splintered up its leg, which was broke. I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew well and as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away. This was the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder and shot was all spent.

MAY 4. – I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.

JUNE 16. – Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise or turtle. This was the first I had seen, which, it seems, was only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for them.

JUNE 17. – I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her three-score eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.

JUNE 18. – Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at this time the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly; which I knew was not usual in that latitude.

JUNE 19. – Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.

JUNE 20. – No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.

JUNE 21. – Very ill; frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition – to be sick, and no help. Prayed to God, for the first time since the storm off Hull, but scarce knew what I said, or why, my thoughts being all confused.

JUNE 22. – A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness.

JUNE 28. – Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up; and though the fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet I considered that the fit of the ague would return again the next day, and now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself when I should be ill; and the first thing I did, I filled a large square case-bottle with water, and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed them together. Then I got me a piece of the goat’s flesh and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. At night I made my supper of three of the turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell, and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God’s blessing to, that I could remember, in my whole life.

After I had eaten I tried to walk, but found myself so weak that I could hardly carry a gun, for I never went out without that; so I went but a little way, and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and very calm and smooth. As I sat here some such thoughts as these occurred to me: “Why has God done this to me?” But then I remembered my wicked life, and I said to myself: “Why do you ask why God has done this to you? Ask instead why you are still alive, not killed by pirates in Salee, not pulled down to the bottom of the sea!” Being disturbed by these thoughts, I went to my chest to look for some tobacco. In the cave I also found the Bible I had taken from the ship, as you remember. The first words I saw there were: “Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will praise me.” The words were very relevant to my situation, and I often thought about them afterwards. Before going to sleep, I knelt down and prayed to God. When I wake up next day, I was absolutely refreshed and filled the happiness.

My mind was now calm and comforted. I had been on the island for more than two years. I was lord of the whole island and if I liked, I could call myself king or emperor, so I decided to explore better my possessions.[121] One day I found the place, where country become more woody than before. In this part I found different fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the ground, in great abundance,[122] and grapes upon the trees. The vines had spread, indeed, over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was very glad of them; but I was warned by my experience to eat them; remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen, who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers.[123] But I found an excellent use for these grapes; and that was, to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins[124] are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed they were, wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had.

I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon, and citron trees; but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. However, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing.

In the middle of all my labours it happened that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry[125] – not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. The little remainder of corn that had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust;[126] and being willing to have the bag for some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock.

It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so much as remembering that I had thrown anything there, when, about a month after, or thereabouts, I saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears[127] come out, which were perfect green barley,[128] of the same kind as our European – nay, as our English barley. This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account; and this was the more strange to me, because I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa when I was ashore there.

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their season, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread.[129] But it was not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat. Then, I spent the whole day on a small meadow near the creek, cultivating the earth for sowing. Among all the goods from the ship there was not a shovel, so I spent about a week to make it. I found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils they call the iron-tree, for its exceeding hardness.[130] Of this, with great labour, and almost spoiling my axe,[131] I cut a piece, and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. Of this piece of iron-wood I made that part of a shovel, which is usually made of iron. With this shovel I dug up a little field for barley and rice.

And now, in the managing my household affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I thought at first it was impossible for me to make.

For example, I was at a great loss for candles; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o’clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African adventure; but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had killed a goat I saved the tallow,[132] and with a little dish made of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum,[133] I made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear, steady light, like a candle.

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my field for sowing, and began to enjoy myself.[134] The 3rd of August, I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried, and, indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy that I did so, for the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried the most of them home to my cave, than it began to rain; and from hence,[135] which was the 14th of August, it rained, more or less, every day till the middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my cave for several days.

I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus:[136] – The half of February, the whole of March, and the half of April – rainy, the sun being then on or near the equinox.[137] The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July, and the half of August – dry, the sun being then to the north of the line. The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of October – rainy, the sun being then come back. The half of October, the whole of November, December, and January, and the half of February – dry, the sun being then to the south of the line.

I have not forgotten about my boat, on which I moved all the goods from the ship. I decided to travel around my island, to examine it from all sides. For this reason I closed up the holes, which formed eventually at the bottom of the boat.

When I reached the opposite side of the island, I was very surprised. I found that side of the island where I now was much pleasanter than mine – the open fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods.

As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island, for here, indeed, the shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side I had found but three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some which I had seen, and some which I had not seen before, and many of them very good meat, but such as I knew not the names of, except those called penguins. I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of my powder and shot, and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat if I could, which I could better feed on; and though there were many goats here, more than on my side the island.

I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame,[138] and taught it to speak to me. I did, after some painstaking,[139] catch a young parrot, for I knocked it down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home; but it was some years before I could make him speak; however, at last I taught him to call me by name very familiarly.

In this journey I surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and, running in to take hold of it, caught it. I had a great mind to bring it home if I could, for I had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats,[140] which might supply me when my powder and shot should be all spent. I made a collar[141] for this little creature, and with a string, which I made of some rope-yam, which I always carried about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to my fence, and there I enclosed him and left him, for I decided to build a small barn[142] near my barley-field. I spent about four days for this building, and made it with strong sticks, held together by pieces of rope. Over the next two weeks I caught three more kids: one male and two females.

For a long time they refused to take food out of my hands; but I thrown them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame. And now I found that I might have them about my house like a flock of sheep. But then it occurred to me that I must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up; and the only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those without break in.

This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet, as I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first work was to find out a proper piece of ground, where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. I found a place very proper for all these (being a plain, open piece of meadow land, or savannah, as our people call it in the western colonies), which had two or three little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody.

I resolved to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and one hundred yards in breadth, which, as it would maintain as many as I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my stock increased, I could add more ground to my enclosure.

I went to work with courage. I was about three months hedging this piece; and, till I had done it, I tethered the four kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often I would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was finished and I let them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn.

This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a flock[143] of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more I had three-and-forty, besides several that I took and killed for my food. After that, I enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to drive them to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one piece of ground into another. But this was not all; for now I not only had goat’s flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk too – a thing which, indeed, in the beginning, I did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise, for now I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. I, that had never milked a cow,[144] much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made only when I was a boy, after a great many essays and miscarriages,[145] made both butter and cheese at last.

I sewed some clothes with the leather of killed goats. I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s skin, with a flap[146] hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck, nothing being so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes. I had a short jacket of goat’s skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either side that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatter dashes, but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.

My living on an island became very comfortable and unchangeable. My activities depended on seasons and weather. I had two small plantations of corn, rice and barley; five cotes with goats; the main “castle”, as I called my tent with the fence round of it, and the summer cottage, a small building next to my plantations, where I spent sometimes two or three nights, when I had a lot of agriculture works and have no time to come back to my castle. The years went by, and in this way I spent fifteen years on island, working a lot and praying to God.

Chapter V

Print of a Man’s Foot

However, one day something happened that changed all my life on the island. It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck,[147] or as if I had seen an apparition.[148] I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot – toes, heel, and every part of a foot.

Nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy.

When I came to my castle, I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I had called a door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning. While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about their having found out my boat, and that there were people here; and that, if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me.

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk. Encouraging myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket and run for my life, it would have made any one have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frightened.

One day, when I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being the south west point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and particularly I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where I supposed the savage wretches had sat down to their human feastings[149] upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures.

I turned away from this terrible sight. I felt sick and vomited,[150] then I ran back to my house. With a flood of tears in my eyes I thanked God that I had been born a civilized man, quite different from these savages. I thanked Him for the comforts He had sent me in my distress.

Since that day I began to make my tour every morning to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about three miles or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing over towards it; but I began to tire of this hard duty, after I had for two or three months constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any discovery.

Since then I started a very prudent and cautious lifestyle: I tried to shoot a gun rarely; I burnt the fire to make a goat-flesh and barley-bread for supper only after the darkness came. For the next two years, I lived quietly on the island. Yet all that time I was imagining ways to escape. I realized that my only way to go about to attempt an escape was, to get a savage into my possession: and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners, whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill. But these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty: that it was impossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them, and killing them all. However, my desire to escape was so strong, that finally I decided to continue to watch out for the savages’ canoes. I set myself upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often that I was heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that I waited; and for great part of that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the island almost every day, to look for canoes, but none appeared.

At once I was surprised in the morning by seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed and out of my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes more in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted.[151] However, I put myself into the same position for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action, if anything had presented. Having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number. In the next time, as I watched, they brought two prisoners from the boats to be killed. I perceived one of them immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or wooden sword,[152] for that was their way; and two or three others were at work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty and unbound, and he started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly towards me; I mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation was.

I was terribly frightened when I saw him running towards me. I thought that all the others would follow him, however only three men were pursuing him. The prisoner came to the river, and swam across. When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the others, but went no farther, and soon after went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very well for him in the end. I observed that the two who swam were yet more than twice as strong swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled from them. It came very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get me a servant, and, perhaps, a companion or assistant; and that I was plainly called by Providence to save this poor creature’s life. I took my guns and ran down to the shore. I hit the first one of the pursuers with my gun and knocked this fellow down. I walked towards the other: I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then obliged to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot.

The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stock still, and neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined still to fly than to come on. I hallooed[153] again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way; then stopped again, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps. When he came close to me, he knelt down and kissed the earth, after that he put his head upon the ground and took my foot upon his head in a sign of his obedience and loyalty. After that, ha stood up and run to his enemies, lying on the sand, and at one blow cut off his heads so cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better. He made me signs that we should dig them up and eat them, however I made signs of vomiting and let him know how much I hated this idea.

He was a comely, handsome fellow,[154] perfectly well made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially when he smiled. I told him that his name would be Friday, for the name of the day on which I saved his life. I took Friday to my castle, gave him some bread and rum, to feel better and pointed to the blanket (the old goat’s skin) to sleep for some time. During the sleeping hour I observed that savages with their canoed were gone.

After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-an-hour, he awoke again, and came out of the cave to me: for I had been milking my goats which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied me he came running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making a great many antic gestures to show it.

Till that day we began to live together. I began to speak to Friday and teach him how to speak to me, and that was a great joy for me, for I spent about seventeen years on the island, listening nor the human speech, nor some other sounds of human being. I made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and in the outside of the first. I made clothes for him with hare’s and goat’s skin.

I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding,[155] and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it home and dress it. I took the kid’s skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth.[156] After I had begun to eat some I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well. He enjoyed it so much, that he told me he would never again eat man’s flesh and I was very glad to hear that.

All the years that I spent on island with Friday were the most wonderful of all the life I led in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little occasion for before. He was very good pupil and I was not so bad teacher: I taught him how to plant corn and barley, how to use the guns, how to milk my goats, to make butter and cheese. I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the fence in the same manner as before, however now it wasn’t a difficult task for me, for I had four work-hands now. We speak a lot about the God, and sometimes I read Bible stories aloud.

Friday told me a lot of things about the people of his barbarian nation and the nations nearby. He told, that at a great distance from his nation on the main land there lived white people like me, and that they were very cruel, for they killed lots of savages. I asked him if I could go from my island to the place where the other white men were. However he said I could, but I would need something like ship, or at last a very big canoe. We made several attempts to build a canoe with an iron wood, but all the attempts were unsuccessful. So I resigned to my fate again. Years passed, and one morning I observed, that there were twenty seven circles on my wooden calendar – so I lived on the island for 27 years.

Chapter VI

Return to England

One morning, the strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, “Master, master, there is a ship. A very big ship!” I could not believe my ears, as I aited for the appearance of the ship for 27 long years!

I was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a ship on the horizon[157] and boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore. At first, I was about to start screaming loudly, calling for help, shooting with all the guns to make people in the boat to notice me. However, we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close. In the next place I went in to fetch my perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer without being discovered.

I saw the boat land on the beach. There were eight men, sitting in the boat, and three were lying in the bottom of the vessel, bound with ropes. When they rich the shore, the three prisoners started crying out to the others, begging for mercy. I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, “O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.” “Why, Friday,” says I, “do you think they are going to eat them, then?” “Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat them.” “No no,” says I, “Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat them.”

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed. However, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts.

Friday and I took our guns and went down to show ourselves to the prisoners. Hidden by the bushes, I cried out: “Who are you, gentlemen? Do not be afraid, I’ll help you to stay alive, if you must promise to accept me as your leader and be faithful to me! “ After that I stepped out into the open. The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, “Am I talking to God or man? Is it a real man or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I; “if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and armed after another manner than you see me.”I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you; you see I have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? What is your case?” “Our case, sir,” said he, “is too long to tell you while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, I was commander of that ship – my men have mutinied against me;[158] they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me – one my mate, the other a passenger – where we expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it.”

I asked them, where were their enemies, and they replied, that they went a-sleeping on a small meadow in a woody part of the island. I gave to each of the prisoners a loaded gun, and we went into the woods towards the sleeping men. The captain said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them if he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone still, for they would go on board and bring the whole ship’s company, and destroy us all. “Well, then,” says I, “necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood,[159] I told him they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, crying out to the others. The captain’s friends fired their guns and killed two rebel leaders and took two prisoners. After that the last four enemies started begging for mercy. After that captain and his friends went to the ship, to prepare everything to sail. He made me to decide the fate of the captured.

One of them answered to my question, what to do with them, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy.[160] But I told them I knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go to England; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England other than as prisoners in irons,[161] to be tried for mutiny and running away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged. So I left it on that issue. Therefore I showed them my house, my corn and barley plantations, goat’s barns, and all of my goods.

Having done all this I left them the next day, and went on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail. I took from the island for relics, the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots. Friday was very interested in the ship sailing, because he didn’t ever been aboard the European vessel.

And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity the same day of the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat from among the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent.

When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there. Friday and the captain of the ship were my best friends. In the same year I got married, and had three children. However, more about this and my other adventures I will tell the next time: though this is another story.

Exercises (задания)

1. Ответьте на вопросы: True, False или Not Mentioned (T, F, NM).

Например: Robinson’s father was a sailor. ___F__

Robinson had two elder brothers. _______

The name of the oldest brother was John and he was a lieutenant. _______

Robinson tried himself like a potter and farmer.________

The first voyage began on the 1st of September 1651. _______

After the first shipwreck Robinson Crusoe went home to his parents in upset feelings. _______

Robinson spent three years of his life, being a miserable slave in Sallee. _____

2. Кому принадлежат эти реплики? Впиши говорящего.

…………….: “Why do you ask why God has done this to you? Ask instead why you are still alive, not killed by pirates in Salee, not pulled down to the bottom of the sea!”

…………….: “I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition”

…………….: “Master, master, a ship with a sail!”

…………….: “I was commander of that ship – my men have mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore in this desolate place”

…………….: “O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.”

…………….: “Young man, you ought never to go to sea anymore; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man.”

3. Охарактеризуйте героев, используя прилагательные, данные ниже.

Robinson Crusoe _______________________________

Xury _________________________________________

Friday ________________________________________

Kreutznaer (Robinson’s father) ____________________________________________________________

Captain of English ship (Robinson’s best friend, who died) ____________________________________

dexterous, faithful, gentle, naked, nimble, rough, thrifty, wise, kind, clever, cannibal, catholic, Muslim, pagan, honest, humane, grave, brave

4. Выбери правильный вариант ответа:

1) Robinson had his own flock of _______ on the island

a) cows

b) goats

c) sheep

d) horses

2) Robinson’s pet on the island was ________

a) a cat

b) a dog

c) a parrot

d) a snake

3) Robinson’s father was _________

a) a clerk

b) a farmer

c) a teacher

d) a doctor

e) a merchant

f) a sailor

4) What goods did Robinson find on board of the ship?

a) a carpenter’s chest

b) a guitar

c) a pan

d) guns

e) a hatchet

f) a kettle

g) some powder

h) socks

5. Догадайся по описанию, о каком предмете идет речь (coins, savages, goats, trading, fence, bullets).

1. Line of wooden posts which are joined by ropes or wood _______

2. Animals with horns and long-haired coats ________

3. People from uncivilized tribes __________

4. Pieces of metal which are fired from guns _________

5. Small pieces of gold or silver, which we use like money. _________

6. Buying and selling ________

Vocabulary (словарь к тексту)

A

ability n возможность

abysmal adj ужасный, жалкий

accompany v сопровождать, сопутствовать

adrift adv по воле случая, брошенный на произвол судьбы

alas! Увы!

anchor n якорь

arrival n прибытие

B

barely n ячмень

bark n лай

bay n бухта

beast n животное

beeswax n воск

be wounded получить ранение

bless v благословлять

boatswain n боцман

bore v утомлять, надоедать

bullets n пули

burden n груз, ноша

C

cane n тростник

canvas n паруса

carpenter n плотник

chamber n комната

chase n погоня

cheerful adj веселый, бодрый

chest n ящик, сундук

circumstances n pl обстоятельства, условия, материальное положение

coin n монета

corruption n искажение

country free school n сельская приходская школа

curlew n кроншнеп (птица)

D

delightful adj восхитительный, очаровательный

deliverance n освобождение, избавление

desire n желание, мечта

desolate island необитаемый остров

despite of вопреки

dexterous adj ловкий

disappointment n разочарование

disaster n бедствие

discourse n беседа, проповедь

dismal adj мрачный, угрюмый

dispatch v отправлять, отсылать

domestic things домашнее хозяйство

dram n глоток спиртного

dreadful adj ужасный, отвратительный

dried flesh вяленое мясо

dusk n сумерки

E

earnestly adv серьезно, убедительно

ease n легкость, покой

elephants’ teeth слоновая кость, бивни

F

faithful adj верный, преданный

fate n судьба

faubourg n предместье

fir n пихта, ель

fishing n рыбалка

flee v спасаться бегством

forecastle n носовой кубрик

fore-mast n фок-мачта

foresight n предвидение, предусмотрительность

fowling n охота на птиц

fresh-water sailor моряк-новичок

G

gentle adj благородный, знатный

get married жениться

gold-dust n золотой песок

grain n зерно

guess n догадка, предположение

gulf n залив

gun n ружье

H

half-pike n копье с коротким древком

hammer n молоток

harbour n гавань, порт

hatchet n топорик

Heaven n Провидение

helm n руль, штурвал

hideous adj отвратительный

hillock n пригорок

hometown n родной город

honesty n честность

hook n крючок

house-education образование на дому

household n домашнее хозяйство

humanity n гуманность, человечность; человечество

hurricane n тропический циклон

I

increase v увеличиваться, возрастать

Ingenio n бразильская плантация, на которой выращивают табак и сахарный тростник

inhabited adj обитаемый

innocent adj невинный

J

jar n кувшин, сосуд

L

lance n копье

latitude n геогр. широта

league n лига (мера длины)

licence n разрешение на проживание

lighthouse n маяк

long-boat n баркас

longitude n геогр. долгота

looting n грабеж, мародерство

M

man-of-war n военный корабль

mariner n моряк

merchant n купец

mighty adj могучий, обладающий огромной силой

mirth n радость, веселье

moor v причаливать, швартоваться

muzzle n дуло ружья

N

naked adj голый

native adj родной; n туземец, уроженец

naturalization n принятие гражданства

nimble adj шустрый

O

oar n весло

oath n клятва

obey v повиноваться, слушаться

observation n наблюдение

overwhelmed adj ошеломленный

owe v быть в долгу

P

perish v гибнуть, умирать

pound sterling фунт стерлингов

powder n порох

powder-chest пороховой ящик

pray v молиться

profit n прибыль, доход, выгода

prohibition n запрет

pump n насос, помпа

punch n пунш

purchase n покупка, приобретение

purpose n цель, назначение

pursue v преследовать

R

redemption n искупление

release n освобождение

resolve v принимать решение

rigging n такелаж, снасти

roar n рев, рык

rogue n негодяй

rough adj грубый

rover n пират

S

safekeeping n сохранение

satisfy v удовлетворять, отвечать требованиям

savage n дикарь

scared adj испуганный

sea biscuits сухари (еда моряков)

sea-sick adj страдающий «морской болезнью»

servants n pl слуги, челядь

settle v селиться

shipwreck n кораблекрушение

shore n берег

shot n выстрел

slave market невольничий рынок

slavery n рабство

smooth adj гладкий, спокойный

struggle n борьба

surname n фамилия

swear v клясться

T

tail-wind n попутный ветер

take delight получать удовольствие

tender adj ласковый, мягкий в обращении

thorny adj колючий

thrifty adj бережливый, экономный

tobacco-pipe трубка для курения

trading n торговля

V

vast adj огромный, обширный

voyage n плавание, морское путешествие

W

weapon n оружие

wickedness n злой поступок, злоба

widow n вдова

wonder n удивление, изумление

wrapped up охваченный

wretch n негодяй