by Daniel Defoe
no candle, I gave it over for that time; but resolved to comeagain the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, which I hadmade of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wild fire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of myown making (for I made very good candles now of goats' tallow, but washard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, andsometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles;) and going into thislow place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours, as I have said, almostten yards; which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold enough,considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyond it.When I had got through the strait, I found the roof rose higher up, Ibelieve near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen inthe island, I dare say, as it was, to look round the sides and roof ofthis vault or cave; the wall reflected an hundred thousand lights to mefrom my two candles. What it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or anyother precious stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, Iknew not. The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto ofits kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the floor was dryand level, and had a sort of a small loose gravel upon it, so that therewas no nauseous or venomous creature to be seen, neither was there anydamp or wet on the sides or roof: the only difficulty in it was theentrance; which, however, as it was a place of security, and such aretreat as I wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that I wasreally rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, tobring some of those things which I was most anxious about to this place;particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of powder, and allmy spare arms, viz. two fowling-pieces, for I had three in all, andthree muskets, for of them I had eight in all: so I kept at my castleonly five, which stood ready-mounted, like pieces of cannon, on myoutmost fence; and were ready also to take out upon any expedition. Uponthis occasion of removing my ammunition, I happened to open the barrelof powder, which I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet; and Ifound that the water had penetrated about three or four inches into thepowder on every side, which, caking, and growing hard, had preserved theinside like a kernel in the shell; so that I had near sixty pounds ofvery good powder in the centre of the cask: this was a very agreeablediscovery to me at that time; so I carried all away thither, neverkeeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, forfear of a surprise of any kind: I also carried thither all the lead Ihad left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which were said tolive in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come at them; forI persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five hundred savages wereto hunt me, they could never find me out; or, if they did, they wouldnot venture to attack me here. The old goat, whom I found expiring, diedin the mouth of the cave the next day after I made this discovery: and Ifound it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in andcover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there, toprevent offence to my nose.
I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island; andwas so naturalized to the place, and the manner of living, that could Ihave but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the placeto disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated forspending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I hadlaid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrivedto some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass agreat deal more pleasantly with me than it did before: as, first, I hadtaught my Pol, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly,and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me;for I believe no bird ever spoke plainer; and he lived with me no lessthan six and twenty years: how long he might have lived afterwards Iknow not, though I know they have a notion in the Brazils that theylive a hundred years. My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion tome for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere oldage. As for my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to thatdegree, that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keepthem from devouring me and all I had; but, at length, when the two oldones I brought with me were gone, and after some time continuallydriving them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, theyall ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which Ikept tame, and whose young, when they had any, I always drowned; andthese were part of my family. Besides these, I always kept two or threehousehold kids about me, whom I taught to feed out of my hand; and I hadtwo more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call RobinCrusoe, but none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains withany of them that I had done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls,whose names I knew not, that I caught upon the shore, and cut theirwings; and the little stakes which I had planted before my castle wallbeing now grown up to a good thick grove, these fowls all lived amongthese low trees, and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; sothat, as I said above, I began to be very well contented with the life Iled, if I could have been secured from the dread of the savages. But itwas otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shallmeet with my story, to make this just observation from it, viz. Howfrequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seekmost to shun, and which, when we are, fallen into, is the most dreadfulto us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by whichalone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. Icould give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life;but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in thecircumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-thirdyear; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot callit,) was the particular time of my harvest, and required my being prettymuch abroad in the fields: when going out pretty early in the morning,even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing alight of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about twomiles, towards the end of the island where I had observed some savageshad been, as before, and not on the other side; but, to my greataffliction, it was on my side of the island.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short withinmy grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised, and yet I hadno more peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if thesesavages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing orcut, or any of my works and improvements, they would immediatelyconclude that there were people in the place, and would then never giveover till they had found me out. In this extremity, I went back directlyto my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all things withoutlook as wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence:I loaded all my cannon, as I called them, that is to say, my muskets,which were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pistols, andresolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously tocommend myself to the divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God todeliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. I continued in thisposture about two hours; and began to be mighty impatient forintelligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out. After sittingawhile longer, and musing what I should do in this, I was not able tobear sitting in ignorance any longer; so setting up my ladder to theside of the hill, where there was a flat place, as I observed before,and then pulling the ladder up after me, I set it up again, and mountedto the top of the hill; and pulling out my perspective-glass, which Ihad taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, andbegan to look for the place. I presently found there were no less thannine naked savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, not towarm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being extremelyhot, but, as I supposed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of humanflesh, which they had brought with them, whether alive or dead, Icould not tell.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore;and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to me to w
ait for the returnof the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusionthis sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side of theisland, and so near me too; but when I considered their coming must bealways with the current of the ebb, I began, afterwards, to be moresedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safetyall the time of the tide of flood, if they were not on shore before: andhaving made this observation, I went abroad about my harvest-work withthe more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to thewestward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle, as we call it)away. I should have observed, that for an hour or more before they wentoff, they went a dancing; and I could easily discern their postures andgestures by my glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation,but that they were stark naked, and had not the least covering uponthem; but whether they were men or women, I could not distinguish.
As
