by Daniel Defoe
duty of praying toGod, than he is for a repentance on a sick bed; for these discomposuresaffect the mind, as the others do the body; and the discomposure of themind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, andmuch greater; praying to God being properly an act of the mind, notof the body.
But to go on: after I had thus secured one part of my little livingstock, I went about the whole island, searching for another privateplace to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to the westpoint of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, Ithought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found aperspective-glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which I savedout of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote, thatI could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyeswere not able to hold to look any longer: whether it was a boat or not,I do not know, but as I descended from the hill I could see no more ofit; so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more out without aperspective-glass in my pocket. When I was come down the hill to the endof the island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was presentlyconvinced that the seeing the print of a man's foot was not such astrange thing in the island as I imagined: and, but that it was aspecial providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where thesavages never came, I should easily have known that nothing was morefrequent than for the canoes from the main, when they happened to be alittle too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island forharbour: likewise, as they often met and fought in their canoes, thevictors, having taken any prisoners, would bring them over to thisshore, where, according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals,they would kill and eat them; of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being theS.W. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor isit possible for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing the shorespread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; andparticularly, I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and acircle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where I supposed the savagewretches had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies oftheir fellow creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I entertainedno notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while: all myapprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman,hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature,which, though I had heard of it often, yet I never had so near a view ofbefore: in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle; mystomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when naturedischarged the disorder from my stomach; and having vomited withuncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stayin the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speedI could, and walked on towards my own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood stillawhile, as amazed, and then recovering myself, I looked up with theutmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gaveGod thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where Iwas distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that,though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet givenme so many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for thanto complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even in this miserablecondition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope ofHis blessing; which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent toall the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness, I went home to my castle, and began to bemuch easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I wasbefore: for I observed that these wretches never came to this island insearch of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or notexpecting, any thing here; and having often, no doubt, been up in thecovered, woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. Iknew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the leastfootsteps of human creature there before; and I might be eighteen yearsmore as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself tothem, which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only businessto keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a bettersort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet Ientertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have beenspeaking of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring andeating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept closewithin my own circle, for almost two years after this; when I say myown circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz. my castle, mycountry-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods:nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for mygoats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretcheswas such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing the Devilhimself. I did not so much as go to look after my boat all this time,but began rather to think of making me another; for I could not think ofever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the islandto me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea; in whichif I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what wouldhave been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger ofbeing discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness aboutthem; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before;only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyesmore about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by anyof them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lestany of them being on the island should happen to hear it. It wastherefore a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself witha tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any more about thewoods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after this, itwas by traps and snares, as I had done before: so that for two yearsafter this, I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never wentout without it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols outof the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them,sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up one of the greatcutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it onalso; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I wentabroad, if you add to the former description of myself, the particularof two pistols, and a great broad-sword hanging at my side in a belt,but without a scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed, exceptingthese cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living.All these things tended to show me, more and more, how far my conditionwas from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to many otherparticulars of life, which it might have pleased God to have made mylot. It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be amongmankind at any condition of life, if people would rather compare theircondition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful, than bealways comparing them with those which are better, to assist theirmurmurings and complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many things which Iwanted, so, indeed, I thought that the frights I had been in about thesesavage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation,had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences; and Ihad dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts too muchupon, and that was, to try if I could not make some of my barley intomalt, and then try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsicalthought, and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for Ipresently saw there would be the want of several things necessary to themaking my beer, that it would be impossible for me to supply: as, first,casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observedalready, I could never compass; no, though I spent not only many days,but weeks, nay, months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the nextplace, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, nocopper or kettle to make it boil; and yet, with all these thingswanting, I verily believe, had not the frights and terrors I was inabout the
savages intervened, I had undertaken it, and perhaps broughtit to pass too; for I seldom gave any thing over without accomplishingit, when once I had it in my head to begin it. But my invention now ranquite another way; for, night and day, I could think of nothing but howI might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel, bloodyentertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they should bringhither to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than this whole workis intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or ratherbrooded upon, in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or atleast frightening them so as to prevent their coming hither any more:but all this was abortive; nothing could be possible to take effect,unless I was to be there to do it myself: and what could one man doamong them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of themtogether, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which theycould shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun?
Sometimes I thought
