CHAPTER IV.
Return to consciousness. Seek for my comrades. Commence a calendar, and take inventory of my effects.
How long I lay unconscious where I had scrambled and fallen down Ishall never know, but when I awoke and stared around me, I found thatit was broad daylight, and, by the sun, at least eleven or twelveo'clock in the day. I gazed around me and tried to collect my thoughts,and the horrors of the preceding night came slowly back to my memory. Iarose and stretched my limbs, and with the exception of some stiffnessin my joints, and bruises that were not of a serious nature, I foundmyself all right. I fell upon my knees and devoutly thanked God formy deliverance, and then arose and looked around me. I found myselfstanding on a smooth, sandy beach, which, by the sun, evidently rannearly, if not quite, east and west; a narrow strip of water not morethan a short quarter of a mile separated me from the reef over whichI had evidently been swept the previous night. To my right hand, as Istood facing the north, ran a level beach of a mile or so in extent,ending in an elevation and hills at the extreme end, faced, its entirelength, as far as I could see, by this natural breakwater or reef infront of me. To the left I discerned an opening to the sea about onemile distant; and beyond, low land extending for several miles, andending in a promontory of some elevation. Turning about, I saw behindme, running down almost to the sandy beach, a grove of trees, with manyof which I was familiar, and wooded higher land in the background.
My nautical knowledge told that there was no known land in this part ofthe world. Where was I? Where were my companions in the boat? Was theisland inhabited by savages? Had I been saved to become their prey? Allthese questions rushed through my mind, but were unanswerable. I beganto feel faint and sick with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, and devouredwith an unappeasable curiosity to know the fate of my comrades; and tothis end, I stripped off my clothing and waded into the water towardsthe reef over which I had so providentially been cast. I found thewater shallow and with a pure, sandy bottom, and had only to swim afew rods to regain my feet again, and be able to reach the breakwater.With what intense excitement, fierce but restrained, I climbed therocks, and gazed upon the open sea, you who have never been cast away,from home, kindred, and society can never know. I looked about me uponthe rocks, and at the treacherous sea, now as smooth and smiling as asleeping infant. In vain did I search for any traces of my comrades.
Not a sign of them was to be seen. Now that the storm had gone down,this breakwater of rocks stood several feet above the sea, irregularin width and height. By aligning myself on the place on shore whereI had landed, and whence I had come, I felt sure that I must be nearthe spot where the boat had struck. I passed a little farther to theright, and came upon the scene of my disaster. Upon the rocks I foundsmall portions of the boat, broken to atoms not larger than my hand,but no friend, no comrade, no living soul to cheer my despair. I sawin a very few minutes that if they had not been swept over the reef atthe very first sea, as I had been, they had inevitably been washed backagain into the ocean, dashed amongst the rocks, and sucked in by theundertow, never more to be seen by man. A very few moments' examinationconvinced me that such must have been the case. But one single chanceremained, and that was, if they were swept over the reef as I was, ifalive, their tracks would show on the sand of the shore behind me. Idid not have the slightest faith in this, but saved it in my mind tobe proved when I returned to the shore. Striving to put the horrorof my position far from me, and trying to see if there was anythingto be saved that could be useful to me in my miserable condition, Ibegan to look about me in the crevices of the rocks for any smallarticle that might have escaped the maw of the ocean. In about anhour's search I had gathered the following together, which was everyatom that seemed to remain of the boat and her appurtenances,--theremainder had evidently been ground into powder against the rocks,and hurled back with the retiring waves into the insatiable ocean:One piece of boat-planking, about nine feet long and ten inches wide,which I preserved on account of its containing several nails whichhad bolted it to the keelson; one tin meat-can that we had used as abailer, somewhat bent, which I found securely jammed in a crevice ofthe rock; one canister of preserved meat, thrown by the sea into a sortof natural cavity or pocket in the rocks; and last, the most importantof all, the boat's anchor and rope cable, which had washed across thereef and hung with the end in the quiet waters of the inner bay. Igrasped it and coiled it up, following it to the outer side of thereef, whence I pulled up the anchor, and found myself in possession ofit and some twenty fathoms of good inch-and-three-quarter manilla rope.This constituted all my earthly fortunes, and, placing the anchor andrope and the empty meat canister and the full one upon the piece ofboat-planking, which just barely supported them when submerged in thewater, I thrust them carefully before me towards the other shore, and,getting too deep to wade, I guided them with one hand and pushed thembefore me till, again touching bottom with my feet, I soon had them onland, safe and sound, at the place where I had first landed, and beyondthe reach of the sea.
As soon as these were secured, I started off to the left to examinethe pure white sand to see if any human foot had come on shore butmy own; but, alas, there was no sign. Turning, when I had reacheda distance beyond which it would have been useless to look, I cameback and made a similar exploration to the right. As I advanced Isaw something black rolling quietly up and down the beach with eachminiature wave. For one instant I mistook it for the body of one of mycomrades; the next I knew it for one of the breakers that had been inthe boat. I rushed into the sea and grasped it, its light weight toldme at once that it was the one containing my charts, books, Epitome,and Nautical Almanac, that its very lightness had preserved it andallowed it to be cast over the reef at the very first sea, instead ofbeing crushed, as the one full of water evidently had been, with theboat. With gratitude to God for even this slight mercy and solace, Idragged the cask well towards the land and beyond all danger of the sea.
Having made sure that there was nothing else to be saved, I came backto my first landing-place, sat down fainter than ever, but managed toget on my clothes, and with one of the rusty nails from the boat'splank to scratch upon a large stone near by, "November 9, 1865," afterwhich I forced open the top of the canister of preserved meats, bymeans of the same nail and a small pebble, taking care not to cut thewhole top quite out, but to leave it hanging by a kind of hinge. Bypunching hole after hole around the periphery of the canister with thepoint of the nail, close together, I soon had it off except in oneportion purposely preserved. Pressing this cover back, I took a draughtof what to me, in my state, might be called nectar, for it was bothfood and water, but which was in reality simply beef soup.
After this refreshing draught, I lay myself down upon the bank and gavemyself up to meditation. After reclining upon the ground about half anhour, my eyes became fixed upon an object slowly approaching me fromthe right hand, and evidently going out of the narrow inlet in front ofme with the tide, which was then at ebb. I rubbed my eyes, and thoughtI recognized an article belonging to the boat. I took off my clothesagain and entered the water, and soon had hold of one of the large redpowder-canisters, which had been filled with seeds and stored in theboat when we entered Magellan Straits. I eagerly seized upon my prizeand brought it safely to shore, and found that it had been preservedperfectly water-tight by the screw in the top, through which hole theseeds had been dropped into it and then closed. I carried this canisterto my former seat and sat myself down with all my worldly goods aboutme. I made mentally the following inventory of effects:--
On my person I had the following: I had lost my hat in the gale, andthe remainder of my clothing consisted of one pair of coarse shoes, onepair of woollen stockings, one pair of flannel drawers, one pair ofcheap woollen trousers, one flannel undershirt, one blue flannel shirt,one silk necktie. On the ground before me: one empty tin canisterthat we had used as a bailer, one empty tin canister that had latelycontained the beef soup, one large tin canister, filled with gardenseeds, one anchor of abou
t forty pounds weight, and twenty fathoms ofline, one piece of boat-planking with several nails, and the emptybreaker, containing, as I knew by memory, one Bowditch's Epitome,one Nautical Almanac, one large book, entitled, "Compendium of UsefulArts and Sciences," and one chart of the South Pacific Ocean. In thepocket of my trousers I found one piece of plug tobacco, a small pieceof twine, a hair comb, and clay pipe. My knife, for which I would havegiven so much, had either been laid down in the boat or since lost; itwas, at any rate, gone, and I mourned for it.
My various duties in collecting these things about me; my formerfatigue and depression, aided by the food I had swallowed, soonbrought me to a state of drowsiness; and as the sun was now fastdeclining, I drew myself further upon the island and under a sort ofcedar-tree,--the thick and low boughs of which formed a covering formy body from the dews,--and gathering my household goods about me, I,after meekly resigning myself to my fate and commending myself to God,lay quietly down and fell to sleep with the setting sun.
Perseverance Island; Or, The Robinson Crusoe of the Nineteenth Century Page 7
