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

by Daniel Defoe

blood, if there should happen the least breach of faithamong his countrymen. He told me they were all of them very civil,honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, havingneither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy anddiscretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to theirown country; and that he was sure, if I would undertake their relief,they would live and die by me.

  Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, ifpossible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to them totreat. But when we had got all things in readiness to go, the Spaniardhimself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it, on onehand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could not but bevery well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliveranceof his comrades for at least half a year. The case was thus: He had beenwith us now about a month, during which time I had let him see in whatmanner I had provided, with the assistance of Providence, for mysupport; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid up;which, though it was more than sufficient for myself, yet it was notsufficient, without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increasedto four; but much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, whowere, as he said, sixteen, still alive, should come over; and, least ofall, would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should buildone, for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America; so hetold me he thought it would be more adviseable to let him and the othertwo dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed tosow, and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have asupply of corn for his countrymen, when they should come; for want mightbe a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselvesdelivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another. "Youknow," says he, "the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at firstfor their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even against Godhimself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in thewilderness."

  His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could notbut be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfiedwith his fidelity: so we fell to digging all four of us, as well as thewooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month'stime, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as much landcured and trimmed up as we sowed two and twenty bushels of barley on,and sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short, all the seed we had tospare: nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our ownfood, for the six months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say,reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is notto be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country.

  Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put us outof fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had beenvery great, we went freely all over the island, whenever we foundoccasion; and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon ourthoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of itout of mine. For this purpose, I marked out several trees which Ithought fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cuttingthem down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted mythoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed themwith what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into singleplanks, and I caused them to do the like, till they had made about adozen large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feetlong, and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labourit took up, any one may imagine.

  At the same time, I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goatsas much as I could; and, for this purpose, I made Friday and theSpaniard go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day (for wetook our turns,) and by this means we got about twenty young kids tobreed up with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids,and added them to our flock. But, above all, the season for curing thegrapes coming on, I caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up inthe sun, that, I believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins ofthe sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels; andthese, with our bread, was a great part of our food, and was very goodliving too, I assure you, for it is exceeding nourishing.

  It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the mostplentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it was enoughto answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we brought inand threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like inproportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the nextharvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; orif we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully havevictualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world, that isto say, any part of America. When we had thus housed and secured ourmagazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware, viz. greatbaskets, in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy anddexterous at this part, and often blamed me that I did not make somethings for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it.

  And now having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected, Igave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could dowith those he had left behind them there. I gave him a strict charge notto bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the presence ofhimself and the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, orattack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind as tosend for them in order to their deliverance; but that they would standby him, and defend him against all such attempts, and wherever theywent, would be entirely under and subjected to his command; and thatthis should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. How theywere to have done this, when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, was aquestion which we never asked. Under these instructions, the Spaniardand the old savage, the father of Friday, went away in one of the canoeswhich they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, whenthey came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. I gave each ofthem a musket, with a firelock on it, and about eight charges of powderand ball, charging them to be very good husbands of both, and not to useeither of them but upon urgent occasions.

  This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me, in viewof my deliverance, for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave themprovisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves formany days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards for about eight days'time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go; agreeing with themabout a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I shouldknow them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they came onshore. They went away with a fair gale, on the day that the moon was atfull, by my account in the month of October; but as for an exactreckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover itagain; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to besure I was right; though, as it proved, when I afterwards examined myaccount, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.

  It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a strange andunforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not perhaps beenheard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when myman Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "Master, master,they are come, they are come!" I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, Iwent out as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove,which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; Isay, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which was not mycustom to do: but I was surprised, when turning my eyes to the sea, Ipresently saw a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing infor the shore, with a shoulder of mutton sail, as they call it, and thewind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed presently,that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on, but fromthe southernmost end of the island. Upon this, I called Friday in, andbade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, andthat we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In thenext place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what I couldmake of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed u
p to the topof the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of any thing, andto take my view the plainer, without being discovered. I had scarce setmy foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at ananchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, S.S.E. but notabove a league and a half from the shore. By my observation, it appearedplainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an Englishlong-boat.

  I cannot express the confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing aship, and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my owncountrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe; butyet I had some secret doubts hung about me, I cannot tell from whencethey came, bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, itoccurred to me to consider what business an English ship could have inthat part of the world, since it was not the way to or from any part ofthe world where the English had any traffic; and I knew there had