by Daniel Defoe
for falling upon these wretches, that inall that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there wereany of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shorethere or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of mycontrivances against them, or be provoked, by any advantage which mightpresent itself, to fall upon them: only this I did, I went and removedmy boat, which I had on the other side of the island, and carried itdown to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a littlecove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reasonof the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not come, withtheir boats, upon any account whatever. With my boat I carried awayevery thing that I had left there belonging to her, though not necessaryfor the bare going thither, viz. a mast and sail which I had made forher, and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be calledeither anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of itskind: all these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow ofany discovery, or any appearance of any boat, or of any humanhabitation, upon the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as I said,more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon myconstant employment, viz. to milk my she-goats, and manage my littleflock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of theisland, was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these savagepeople, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any thoughtsof finding any thing here, and consequently never wandered off from thecoast; and I doubt not but they might have been several times on shoreafter my apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before.Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what mycondition would have been if I had chopped upon them and been discoveredbefore that, when, naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and thatloaded often only with small shot, I walked every where, peeping andpeering about the island to see what I could get; what a surprise shouldI have been in, if, when I discovered the print of a man's foot, I had,instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuingme, and by the swiftness of their running, no possibility of my escapingthem! The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within me, anddistressed my mind so much, that I could not soon recover it, to thinkwhat I should have done, and how I should not only have been unable toresist them, but even should not have had presence of mind enough to dowhat I might have done; much less what now, after so much considerationand preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinkingof these things, I would be very melancholy, and sometimes it would lasta great while; but I resolved it all, at last, into thankfulness to thatProvidence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and hadkept from me those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent indelivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of any suchthing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible. Thisrenewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in formertime, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, inthe dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we aredelivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a quandary,(as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way, or thatway, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to go thatway: nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business, hascalled to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, fromwe know not what springs, and by we know not what power, shall over-ruleus to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear, that had we gone thatway which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to havegone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these, and many likereflections, I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that wheneverI found those secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doingany thing that presented, or going this way or that way, I never failedto obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it thanthat such a pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could givemany examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life,but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappyisland; besides many occasions which it is very likely I might havetaken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that I see withnow. But it is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise allconsidering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinaryincidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slightsuch secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisibleintelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannotaccount for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits,and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied,and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall haveoccasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of mysolitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess thatthese anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern thatwas now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all thecontrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations andconveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands thanthat of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of woodnow, for fear the noise I might make should be heard: much less would Ifire a gun, for the same reason: and, above all, I was intolerablyuneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a greatdistance in the day, should betray me. For this reason I removed thatpart of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots andpipes, &c. into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I had beensome time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cavein the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, nosavage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venturein; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wantednothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where bymere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribeall such things now to Providence,) I was cutting down some thickbranches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on, I must observethe reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus: I was afraid ofmaking a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I couldnot live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so Icontrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, underturf, till it became chark, or dry coal: and then putting the fire out,I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services forwhich fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. But this is by theby:--While I was cutting down some wood here, I perceived that behind avery thick branch of low brush-wood, or under-wood, there was a kind ofhollow place: I was curious to look in it, and getting with difficultyinto the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large: that is to say,sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me:but I must confess to you that I made more haste out than I did in,when, looking farther into the place, and which was perfectly dark, Isaw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knewnot, which twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the cave's mouthshining directly in, and making the reflection. However, after somepause, I recovered myself, and began to call myself a thousand fools,and to think, that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit tolive twenty years in an island all alone; and that I might well thinkthere was nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself. Uponthis, plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushedagain, with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not gone three steps in,but I was almost as much frightened as I was before; for I heard a veryloud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by abroken noise, as of words half-expressed, and then a deep sigh again. Istepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise, that it put meinto a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answerfor it, that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking upmy spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little withconsidering that the power and presence of God was every where, and wasable to protect me, upon this I stepped forward again, and by the lightof the firebrand, holding it up a little
over my head, I saw lying onthe ground a most monstrous, frightful, old he-goat just making hiswill, as we say, and gasping for life; and dying, indeed, of mere oldage. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and heessayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought withmyself he might even lie there; for if he had frightened me, so he wouldcertainly fright any of the savages, if any one of them should be sohardy as to come in there while he had any life in him.
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when Ifound the cave was but very small, that is to say, it might be abouttwelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor square,no hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mereNature. I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of itthat went in further, but was so low that it required me to creep uponmy hands and knees to go into it, and whither it went I knew not: sohaving
