The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, Volume 1

by Daniel Defoe

from mankind, a solitaire; one banished from human society.

  I have no clothes to cover me.

  I am without any defence, or means to resist any violence of man or beast.

  I have no soul to speak to, or relieve me.

  GOOD.

  But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's company were.

  But I am singled out too from all the ship's crew, to be spared from death; and he that miraculously save me from death, can deliver me from this condition.

  But I am not starved, and perishing in a barren place, affording no sustenance.

  But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them.

  But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beast to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of Africa: and what if I had been shipwrecked there?

  But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that I have got out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants, or enable me to supply myself, even as long as I live.

  Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarceany condition in the world so miserable, but there was somethingnegative, or something positive, to be thankful for in it: and let thisstand as a direction, from the experience of the most miserable of allconditions in this world, that we may always find in it something tocomfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil,on the credit side of the account.

  Having now, brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and givenover looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship; I say, givingover these things, I began to apply myself to accommodate my way ofliving, and to make things as easy to me as I could.

  I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the sideof a rock,--surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but Imight now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall against itof turfs, about two feet thick on the outside: and after some time (Ithink it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to therock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such thingsas I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found, at some times ofthe year, very violent.

  I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, andinto the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe, too, thatat first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in noorder, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so Iset myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for itwas a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowedon it: and when I found I was pretty safe as to the beasts of prey, Iworked sideways, to the right hand, into the rock, and then turning tothe right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out in theoutside of my pale or fortification.

  This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were, a back-way to mytent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods.

  And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I foundI most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I wasnot able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could notwrite, or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure, without atable: so I went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as reasonis the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating, andsquaring every thing by reason, and by making the most rational judgmentof things, every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. Ihad never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour,application, and contrivance, I found, at last, that I wanted nothingbut I could have made, especially if I had had tools. However, I madeabundance of things, even without tools; and some with no more toolsthan an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that waybefore, 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 had brought it to beas thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, bythis method I could make but one board of a whole tree; but this I hadno remedy for but patience, any more than I had for a prodigious deal oftime and labour which it took me up to make a plank or board: but mytime or labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one wayas another.

  However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in thefirst place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that Ibrought on my raft from the ship. But when I wrought out some boards, asabove, I made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, oneover another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails,and iron-work on; and, in a word, to separate every thing at large intheir places, that I might easily come at them. I knocked pieces intothe wall of the rock, to hang my guns, and all things that would hangup: so that had my cave been seen, it looked like a general magazine ofall necessary things; and I had every thing so ready at my hand, that itwas a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, andespecially to find my stock of all necessaries so great.

  And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day's employment;for, indeed, at first, I was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as tolabour, but in much discomposure of mind; and my journal would, too,have been full of many dull things: for example, I must have saidthus--"_Sept_. 30th. After I had got to shore, and had escaped drowning,instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having firstvomited, with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten into mystomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringingmy hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, andcrying out, 'I was undone, undone!' till, tired and faint, I was forcedto lie down on the ground to repose; but durst not sleep, for fear ofbeing devoured."

  Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and gotall that I could out of her, I could not forbear getting up to the topof a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship:then fancy that, at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself withthe hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till I was almost blind,lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase mymisery by my folly.

  But, having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settledmy household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and allas handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my journal: of which Ishall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all theseparticulars over again) as long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, Iwas forced to leave it off.

  * * * * *

  THE JOURNAL.

  _September_ 30th, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, beingshipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in the offing, came on shore onthis dismal unfortunate island, which I called the ISLAND OF DESPAIR;all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myselfalmost dead.

  All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismalcircumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither food, house, clothes,weapon, nor place to fly to: and, in despair of any relief, saw nothingbut death before me; that I should either be devoured by wild beasts,murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. At theapproach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; butslept soundly, though it rained all night.

  _October_ 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship hadfloated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearerthe island; which, as it was some comfort on one hand (for seeing hersit upright, and not broken in pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, Imight get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for myrelief,) so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of mycomrades, who, I imagined, if we had all staid on board, might havesaved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been all drowned,as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps havebuilt us a boat, out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us tosome other part of the world. I spent great
part of this day inperplexing myself on these things; but, at length, seeing the shipalmost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam onboard. This day also it continued raining, though with no wind at all.

  From the 1st of _October_ to the 24th. All these days entirely spent inmany several voyages to get all I could out of the ship; which I broughton shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much rain also in these days,though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it seems, this was therainy season.

  _Oct_. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon it; butbeing in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, I recoveredmany of them when the tide was out.

  _Oct_. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind;during which time the ship broke in pieces (the wind blowing a littleharder than before) and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her,and that only at low water. I spent this day in covering and securingthe goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil them.

  _Oct_. 26. I