by Daniel Defoe
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again, and after going something farther than I had gone the day before, I found the brook, and the savanna’s began to cease, and the country became more woody than before; in this part I found different fruits, and particularly I found mellons upon the ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees; the vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe and rich: This was a surprising discovery, and I was exceeding glad of them; but I was warn’d by my experience to eat sparingly of them, remembring, that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes kill’d several of our English men who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and feavers: But I found an excellent use for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dry’d grapes or raisins are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed they were, as wholesome, as agreeable to eat, when no grapes might be to be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation, which by the way was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from home. In the night I took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well, and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might judge by the length of the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north-side of me.
At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the country seem’d to descend to the west, and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, run the other way, that is due east; and the country appear’d so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure, or flourish of Spring, that it it look’d like a planted garden.
I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure, (tho’ mixt with my other afflicting thoughts) to think that this was all my own, that I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance, as compleatly as any lord of a manor in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon, and citron trees; but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then: However, the green limes that I gathered, were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mix’d their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool, and refreshing.
I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home; and I resolv’d to lay up a store, as well of grapes, as limes and lemons, to furnish my self for the wet season, which I knew was approaching.
In order to this, I gather’d a great heap of grapes in one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each with me, I travell’d homeward, and resolv’d to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home.
Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came home; so I must now call my tent and my cave: But, before I got thither, the grapes were spoil’d, the richness of the fruits, and the weight of the juice having broken them, and bruis’d them, they were good for little or nothing; as to the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest: But I was surpris’d, when coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gather’d them, I found them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragg’d about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devour’d: By this I concluded, there were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were I knew not.
However, as I found that there was no laying them up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be destroy’d, and the other way they would be crush’d with their own weight. I took another course; for I gather’d a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them up upon the out branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I carry’d as many back as I could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on that side the water, and the wood, and concluded, that I had pitch’d upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole I began to consider of removing my habitation; and to look out for a place equally safe, as where I now was situate, if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island.
This thought run long in my head, and I was exceeding fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me; but when I came to a nearer view of it, and to consider that I was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and by the same ill fate that brought me hither, might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and tho’ it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods, in the center of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove.
However, I was so enamour’d of this place, that I spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month of July; and tho’ upon second thoughts I resolv’d as above, not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as I could reach, well stak’d, and fill’d between with brushwood; and here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always going over it with a ladder, as before; so that I fancy’d now I had my country-house, and my sea-coast-house: And this work took me up to the beginning of August.
I had but newly finish’d my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, but the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation; for tho’ I had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of a sail, and spread it very well; yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into, when the rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finish’d my bower, and began to enjoy my self. The third of August, I found the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dry’d, and indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy that I did so; for the rains which follow’d would have spoil’d them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all down and carry’d most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain, and from hence, which was the fourteenth of August, it rain’d more or less, every day, till the middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my cave for several days.
In this season I was much surpris’d with the encrease of my family; I had been concern’d for the loss of one of my cats, who run away from me, or as I thought had been dead, and I heard no more tale or tidings of her, till to my astonishment she came home about the end of August, with three kittens; this was the more strange to me, because tho’ I had kill’d a wild cat, as I call’d it, with my gun; yet I thought it was a quite differing kind from our European cats; yet the young cats were the same kind of house breed like the old one; and both my cats being females, I thought it very strange: But from these three cats, I afterwards came to be so pester’d with cats, that I was forc’d to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the fourteenth of August to the twenty sixth, incessant rain, so that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement I began to be straitned for food, but venturing out twice, I one day kill’d a goat, and the last day, which was the twenty-sixth, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus; I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the goat’s flesh, or of the turtle for my dinner broil’d; for to my great misfortune, I had no ves
sel to boil or stew any thing; and two or three of the turtle’s eggs for my supper.
During this confinement in my cover, by the rain, I work’d daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees work’d it on towards one side, till I came to the out-side of the hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall, and so I came in and out this way; but I was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for as I had manag’d my self before, I was in a perfect enclosure, whereas now I thought I lay expos’d, and open for any thing to come in upon me; and yet I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat.
September the thirtieth, I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on me, through Jesus Christ; and having not tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I then eat a bisket cake, and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as I began it.
I had all this time observ’d no Sabbath-Day; for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath-Day, and so did not really know what any of the days were; but now having cast up the days, as above, I found I had been there a year; so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath; tho’ I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning.
A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the most remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other things.
The rainy season, and the dry season, began now to appear regular to me, and I learn’d to divide them so, as to provide for them accordingly. But I bought all my experience before I had it; and this I am going to relate, was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made at all: I have mention’d that I had sav’d the few ears of barley and rice which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of themselves, and believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains, the sun being in its southern position going from me.
Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground, as well as I could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sow’d my grain; but as I was sowing, it casually occur’d to my thoughts, that I would not sow it all at first, because I did not know when was the proper time for it; so I sow’d about two thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of each.
It was a great comfort to me afterwards, that I did so, for not one grain of that I sow’d this time came to any thing; for the dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all, till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been but newly sown.
Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagin’d was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground to make another trial in, and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sow’d the rest of my seed in February, a little before the Vernal Equinox; and this having the rainy months of March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind.
But by this experiment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow; and that I might expect two seed-times, and two harvests every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery which was of use to me afterwards: As soon as the rains were over, and the weather began to settle, which was about the month of November, I made a visit up the country to my bower, where tho’ I had not been some months, yet I found all things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge that I had made, was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out and grown with long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head. I could not tell what tree to call it, that these stakes were cut from. I was surpris’d, and yet very well pleas’d, to see the young trees grow; and I prun’d them, and led them up to grow as much alike as I could; and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years; so that tho’ the hedge made a circle of about twenty five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call them, soon cover’d it; and it was a compleat shade, sufficient to lodge under all the dry season.
This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make me a hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall; I mean that of my first dwelling, which I did; and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at about eight yards distance from my first fence, they grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and afterward serv’d for a defence also, as I shall observe in its order.
I found now, that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into Summer and Winter, as in Europe; but into the rainy seasons, and the dry seasons, which were generally thus:
Half February,
rainy, the Sun being then on, or near the Equinox.
March,
rainy, the Sun being then on, or near the Equinox.
Half April,
rainy, the Sun being then on, or near the Equinox.
Half April,
dry, the Sun being then to the north of the Line.
May,
dry, the Sun being then to the north of the Line.
June,
dry, the Sun being then to the north of the Line.
July,
dry, the Sun being then to the north of the Line.
Half August,
dry, the Sun being then to the north of the Line.
Half August,
rainy, the Sun being then come back.
September,
rainy, the Sun being then come back.
Half October,
rainy, the Sun being then come back.
Half October,
dry, the Sun being then to the south of the Line.
November,
dry, the Sun being then to the south of the Line.
December,
dry, the Sun being then to the south of the Line.
January,
dry, the Sun being then to the south of the Line.
Half February,
dry, the Sun being then to the south of the Line.
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as the winds happen’d to blow; but this was the general observation I made: After I had found by experience, the ill consequence of being abroad in the rain. I took care to furnish myself with provisions before hand, that I might not be oblig’d to go out; and I sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months.
This time I found much employment, (and very suitable also to the time) for I found great occasion of many things which I had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant application; particularly, I try’d many ways to make my self a basket, but all the twigs I could get for the purpose prov’d so brittle, that they would do nothing. It prov’d of excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a boy, I used to take great delight in standing at a basket-makers in the town where my father liv’d, to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner how they work’d those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I had by this means full knowledge of the methods of it, that I wanted nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind, that the twigs of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew, might
possibly be as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers in England, and I resolv’d to try.
Accordingly the next day I went to my country-house, as I call’d it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon I came the next time prepar’d with a hatchet to cut down a quantity, which I soon found, for there was great plenty of them; these I set up to dry within my circle or hedge, and when they were fit for use, I carried them to my cave, and here during the next season, I employ’d myself in making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing as I had occasion; and tho’ I did not finish them very handsomly, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; and thus afterwards I took care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decay’d, I made more, especially I made strong deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
Having master’d this difficulty, and employ’d a world of time about it, I bestirr’d my self to see if possible, how to supply two wants: I had no vessels to hold any thing that was liquid, except two runlets which were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the common size, and others which were case-bottles-square, for the holding of waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil any thing, except a great kettle which I sav’d out of the ship, and which was too big for such use as I desir’d it, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by it self. The second thing I would fain have had, was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible to me to make one, however, I found a contrivance for that too at last.
