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

by Daniel Defoe

courage; yet I had not heart enough to go over my wallagain, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the groundgreatly cast down, and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All thiswhile, I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but thecommon _Lord, have mercy upon me!_ and when it was over, that wentaway too.

  While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as if itwould rain; and soon after the wind rose by little, and little, so thatin less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the seawas, all on a sudden, covered with foam and froth; the shore was coveredwith a breach of the water; the trees were torn up by the roots; and aterrible storm it was. This held about three hours, and then began toabate; and in two hours more it was quite calm, and began to rain veryhard. All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified anddejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these windsand rain being the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itselfwas spent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With thisthought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping topersuade me, I went in, and sat down in my tent; but the rain was soviolent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I wasforced to get into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fearit should fall on my head. This violent rain forced me to a new work,viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let thewater go out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I had been inmy cave for some time, and found no more shocks of the earthquakefollow, I began to be more composed. And now to support my spirits,which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store, and took asmall sup of rum; which, however, I did then, and always, verysparingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone. It continuedraining all that night, and great part of the next day, so that I couldnot stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think ofwhat I had best do; concluding, that if the island was subject to theseearthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I mustconsider of building me some little hut in an open place, which I mightsurround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure fromwild beasts or men; for if I staid where I was, I should certainly, onetime or other, be buried alive.

  With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place whereit now stood, being just under the hanging precipice of the hill, andwhich, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent.I spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, incontriving where and how to remove my habitation. The fear of beingswallowed alive affected me so, that I never slept in quiet; and yet theapprehension of lying abroad, without any fence, was almost equal to it:but still, when I looked about, and saw how every thing was put inorder, how pleasantly I was concealed, and how safe from danger, it mademe very loth to remove. In the mean time, it occurred to me that itwould require a vast deal of time for me to do this; and that I must becontented to run the risk where I was, till I had formed a convenientcamp, and secured it so as to remove to it. With this conclusion Icomposed myself for a time; and resolved that I would go to work withall speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle asbefore, and set up my tent in it when it was finished; but that I wouldventure to stay where I was till it was ready, and fit to remove to.This was the 21st.

  _April_ 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put thismeasure into execution; but I was at a great loss about the tools. I hadthree large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchetsfor traffic with the Indians;) but with much chopping and cutting knottyhard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and though I had agrind-stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too. This caused meas much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand pointof politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length Icontrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I mighthave both my hands at liberty.

  _Note._ I had never seen any such thing in England, or at least not totake notice how it was done, though since I have observed it is verycommon there: besides that, my grind-stone was very large and heavy.This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection.

  _April 28, 29._ These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, mymachine for turning my grind-stone performing very well.

  _April 30._ Having perceived that my bread had been low a great while, Inow took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day,which made my heart very heavy.

  _May 1._ In the morning, looking toward the sea-side, the tide beinglow, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and itlooked like a cask: when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and twoor three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore bythe late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought itseemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined thebarrel that was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel ofgunpowder; but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as astone: however, I rolled it farther on the shore for the present, andwent on upon the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, tolook for more.

  When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed. Theforecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least sixfeet: and the stern (which was broke to pieces, and parted from therest, by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging of her)was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side: and the sand wasthrown so high on that side next her stern, that I could now walk quiteup to her when the tide was out; whereas there was a great piece ofwater before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of thewreck without swimming. I was surprised with this at first, but soonconcluded it must be done by the earthquake; and as by this violence theship was more broke open than formerly, so many things came daily onshore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolledby degrees to the land.

  This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing myhabitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, insearching whether I could make any way into the ship: but I foundnothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the shipwas choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of anything, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of theship, concluding that every thing I could get from her would be of someuse or other to me.

  _May 3._ I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which Ithought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together; and when Ihad cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from theside which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to giveover for that time.

  _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 ayoung dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had nohooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat;all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.

  _May 5._ Worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and broughtthree great fir-planks off from the decks; which I tied together, andmade swim on shore when the tide of flood came on.

  _May 6._ Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her, andother pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very muchtired, and had thoughts of giving it over.

  _May 7._ Went to the wreck again, but not with an intent to work; butfound the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams beingcut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose; and the insideof the hold lay so open that I could see into it; but almost full ofwater and sand.

  _May 8._ Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up thedeck, which lay now quite clear of the water and sand. I wrenched up twoplanks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. I left the ironcrow in the wreck for next day.

  _May 9._ Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body ofthe wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, butcould not break them up. I felt also a roll of English lead, and couldstir it; but it
was too heavy to remove.

  _May 10--14._ Went every day to the wreck; and got a great many piecesof timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weightof iron.

  _May 15._ I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece offthe roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving itwith the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, Icould not make any blow to drive the hatchet.

  _May 16._ It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared morebroken by the force of the water; but I staid so long in the woods, toget pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreckthat day.

  _May 17._ I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a greatdistance, two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, andfound it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away.

  _May 24._ Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and with hardlabour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the firstblowing tide several casks floated out, and