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

by Daniel Defoe

up!" says Friday, twiceover again; "me eatee him up; me' makee you good laugh; you all stayhere, me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets off his bootsin a moment, and puts on a pair of pumps, (as we call the flat shoesthey wear, and which he had in his pocket,) gives my other servant hishorse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.

  The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, tillFriday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understandhim, "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with you." We followedat a distance; for now being come down on the Gaseony side of themountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country wasplain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here andthere. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up withhim quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws it at him, and hithim just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown itagainst a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so voidof fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show ussome laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and sawhim, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides,and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to amiddling gallop: away runs Friday, and takes his course as if he runtowards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear,and deliver my man; though I was angry at him heartily for bringing thebear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way:and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and thenrun away; and I called out, "You dog, is this your making us laugh? Comeaway, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature." He heard me,and cried out, "No shoot, no shoot; stand still, and you get muchlaugh:" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear's one, heturned on a sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree fitfor his purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, hegets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at aboutfive or six yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to thetree, and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did, he stoppedat the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into thetree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed atthe folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rodenear to him.

  When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of alarge branch, and the bear got about half way to him. As soon as thebear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker,--"Ha!"says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he falls ajumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, butstood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should getback; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done withhim by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he calls out to himagain, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, youcome no farther? pray you come farther:" so he left jumping and shakingthe tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did comea little farther; then he fell a jumping again, and the bear stoppedagain. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head, andcalled to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear: but hecried out earnestly, "O pray! O pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then;"he would have said by and by. However, to shorten the story, Fridaydanced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughingenough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for firstwe thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bearwas too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to bethrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, sothat we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jestwould be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing thebear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to comeany farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; youno come to me, me come to you:" and upon this he goes out to the smallerend of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently letshimself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough tojump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, andstands still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? Whydon't you shoot him?"--"No shoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now,me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did,as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, hecomes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty cautiously,looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into thebody of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came downthe tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time,very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hindfoot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzleof his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turnedabout to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, byour looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. "So we kill bear inmy country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I: "why, you have noguns."--"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." Thiswas a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and ourguide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew: the howling ofwolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heardon the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I neverheard any thing that filled me with so much horror.

  These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, asFriday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin ofthis monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had nearthree leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and wentforward on our journey.

  The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerousas on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, toseek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of theirsheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place topass, which our guide told us, if there were more wolves in the countrywe should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded withwoods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were topass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the villagewhere we were to lodge. It was within half an hour of sunset when weentered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into theplain; we met with nothing in the first wood, except that, in a littleplain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we sawfive great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as ifthey had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took nonotice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this ourguide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in aready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a coming. We keptour arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves till wecame through that wood, which was near half a league, and entered theplain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to lookabout us: the first object we met with was a dead horse, that is to say,a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of themat work, we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bonesrather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fitto disturb them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us.Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by anymeans; for I found we were like to have more business upon our handsthan we were aware of. We were not gone half over the plain, when webegan to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightfulmanner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directlytowards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly asan army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what mannerto receive them, but found, to draw ourselves in a close line was theonly way; so we formed in a moment: but that we might not have, toomuch interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and thatthe others who had
not fired should stand ready to give them a secondvolley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and then thatthose who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fuseesagain, but stand ready every one with a pistol, for we were all armedwith a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method,able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time: however, at present wehad no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made afull stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire; fourof them being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded,and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found theystopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that Ihad been told that the fiercest creatures were