by Daniel Defoe
first time I went out, I presentlydiscovered that there were goats upon the island, which was a greatsatisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me,viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it wasthe most difficult thing in the world to come at them: but I was notdiscouraged at this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, asit soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a little, I laidwait in this manner for them: I observed, if they saw me in the valleys,though they were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terriblefright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon therocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I concluded, that by theposition of their optics, their sight was so directed downward, thatthey did not readily see objects that were above them: so, afterwards, Itook this method--I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them,and then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot I made among thesecreatures, I killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which shegave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, thekid stood stock still by her, till I came and took her up; and not onlyso, but when I carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kidfollowed me quite to my enclosure; upon which, I laid down the dam, andtook the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to havebred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, andeat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I atesparingly, and preserved my provisions (my bread especially) as much aspossibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary toprovide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did forthat, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, Ishall give a full account of in its proper place: but I must first givesome little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which,it may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away uponthat island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quiteout of the course of our intended voyage; and a great way, viz. somehundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind,I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that inthis desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life.The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made thesereflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself whyProvidence should thus completely ruin its creatures, and render them soabsolutely miserable; so abandoned without help, so entirely depressed,that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, andto reprove me: and particularly, one day, walking with my gun in myhand, by the sea side, I was very pensive upon the subject of my presentcondition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way,thus: "Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, prayremember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you intothe boat? Where are the ten? Why were not they saved, and you lost? Whywere you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then Ipointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that isin them, and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for mysubsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened(which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated from theplace where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore, thatI had time to get all these things out of her: what would have been mycase, if I had been to have lived in the condition in which I at firstcame on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply andprocure them? "Particularly, said I aloud (though to myself,) whatshould I have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any toolsto make any thing, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, orany manner of covering?" and that now I had all these to a sufficientquantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as tolive without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that I had atolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived; forI considered, from the beginning, how I should provide for the accidentsthat might happen, and for the time that was to come, not only after myammunition should be spent, but even after my health or strengthshould decay.
I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition beingdestroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up by lightning;and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it lightenedand thundered, as I observed just now.
And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silentlife, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before, I shalltake it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It was, by myaccount, the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said, Ifirst set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun being to us in itsautumnal equinox, was almost just over my head: for I reckoned myself,by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes northof the Line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into mythoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, andpen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the workingdays: but, to prevent this, I cut it with my knife upon a large post, incapital letters; and making it into a great cross, I set it up on theshore where I first landed, viz. "I came on shore here on the 30th ofSeptember, 1659." Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day anotch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as therest, 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 reckoningof time.
But it happened, that among the many things which I brought out of theship, in the several voyages which, as above mentioned, I made to it, Igot several things of less value, but not at all less useful to me,which I found, some time after, in rummaging the chests; as, inparticular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's,mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, somemathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books ofnavigation; all which I huddled together, whether I might want them orno: also I found three very good bibles, which came to me in my cargofrom England, and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguesebooks also, and, among them, two or three popish prayer books, andseveral other books, all which I carefully secured. And I must notforget, that we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminenthistory I may have occasion to say something, in its place: for Icarried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of theship himself, and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore withmy first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me for many years: I wantednothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up tome, I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do. As Iobserved before, I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them tothe utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept thingsvery exact, but after that was gone I could not; for I could not makeany ink, by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwithstanding allthat I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one; as alsoa spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned to want that without muchdifficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it was neara whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, orsurrounded my habitation. The piles or stakes, which were as heavy as Icould well lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods,and more, by far, in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two daysin cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day indriving it into the ground; for which purpose, I got a heavy piece ofwood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows;which, however, though I found it, yet it made driving these posts orpiles very laborious and tedious work. But what need I have beenconcerned at the tediousness of any thing I had to do, seeing I had timeenough to do it in? nor had I any other employment, if that had beenover, at leas
t that I could foresee, except the ranging the island toseek for food; which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance Iwas reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not somuch to leave them to any that were to come after me (for I was like tohave but few heirs,) as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring uponthem, and afflicting my mind: and as my reason began now to master mydespondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to setthe good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish mycase from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor andcreditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:
EVIL.
I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery.
I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable.
I am divided
