by Daniel Defoe
object in view, or, though not in view, yetrendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motioncarries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eagerembracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Suchwere these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe Irepeated the words, "O that it had been but one!" a thousand times; andmy desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my handswould clinch together, and my fingers would press the palms of myhands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it would havecrushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would striketogether, and set against one another so strong, that for some time Icould not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these things, andthe reason and manner of them: all I can say to them is, to describe thefact, which was even surprising to me, when I found it, though I knewnot from whence it proceeded: it was doubtless the effect of ardentwishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfortwhich the conversation of one of my fellow-christians would have been tome.--But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both, forbadeit: for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never knewwhether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only theaffliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come onshore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had noclothes on but a seaman's waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers,and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guesswhat nation he was of: he had nothing in his pockets but twopieces-of-eight and a tobacco-pipe;--the last was to me of ten timesmore value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat tothis wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that mightbe useful to me: but that did not altogether press me so much as thepossibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whoselife I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort myown to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart, that Icould not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in my boat onboard this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence, I thoughtthe impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted,that it must come from some invisible direction, and that I should bewanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a greatpot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I hadstill a great deal of that left,) and a basket of raisins: and thus,loading myself with every thing necessary, I went down to my boat, gotthe water out of her, put her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, andthen went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag of rice,the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot offresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes,more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese: all which,with great labour and sweat, I carried to my boat; and praying to God todirect my voyage, I put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe alongthe shore, came at last to the utmost point of the island on thenorth-east side. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and eitherto venture or not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ranconstantly on both sides of the island at a distance, and which werevery terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been inbefore, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I wasdriven into either of those currents, I should be carried a great wayout to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island again;and that then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of windshould rise, I should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to give over myenterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore,I stepped out, and sat me down upon a rising bit of ground, very pensiveand anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I wasmusing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood comeon; upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this,presently it occurred to me, that I should go up to the highest piece ofground I could find, and observe, if I could how the sets of the tide,or currents, lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, ifI was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another wayhome, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thought was nosooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill, whichsufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clearview of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guidemyself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of the ebb setout close by the south point of the island, so the current of the floodset in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing todo but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and Ishould do well enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved, the next morning, to setout with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in mycanoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I firstmade a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefitof the current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a greatrate; and yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side haddone before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; buthaving a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directlyfor the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was adismal sight to look at: the ship, which, by its building, was Spanish,stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter ofher were beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, whichstuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast andforemast were brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off;but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. When Icame close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming,yelped and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea tocome to me; I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead withhunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured itlike a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow: Ithen gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I wouldhave let him, he would have burst himself. After this, I went on board;but the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, orforecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. Iconcluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being ina storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that themen were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constantrushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water.Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; norany goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. Therewere some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which laylower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see;but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which Ibelieved belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into theboat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship beenfixed, and the fore-part broken off, I am persuaded I might have made agood voyage; for, by what I found in these two chests, I had room tosuppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I mayguess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from BuenosAyres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond theBrazils, to the Havanna, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time,to any body; and what became of her crew, I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of abouttwenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. Therewere several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with aboutfour pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion forthem, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fireshovel andtongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, acopper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron: and with this cargo, andthe dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and thesame evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island again,weary and fatigued to the last degree. I rep
osed that night in the boat;and in the morning I resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave,and not carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got allmy cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask ofliquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at theBrazils, and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came to open thechests, I found several things of great use to me: for example, I foundin one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled withcordial waters, fine and very good; the bottles held about three pintseach, and were tipped with silver. I found two pots of very goodsuccades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on the top, that the saltwater had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water hadspoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me;and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colouredneckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceedingrefreshing to wipe
