by Daniel Defoe
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when going down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been about had left behind it, viz. the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devour’d by those wretches, with merriment and sport: I was so fill’d with indignation at the sight, that I began now to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there, let them be who, or how many soever.
It seem’d evident to me, that the visits which they thus make to this island, are not very frequent; for it was above fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there again; that is to say, I neither saw them, or any footsteps, or signals of them, in all that time; for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far; yet all this while I liv’d uncomfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions I was in of their coming upon me by surprise; from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time, I was in the murthering humour, and took up most of my hours, which should have been better employ’d, in contriving how to circumvent, and fall upon them, the very next time I should see them; especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time, into two parties; nor did I consider at all, that if I kill’d one party, suppose ten, or a dozen, I was still the next day, or week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum, till I should be at length no less a murtherer than they were in being man-eaters; and perhaps much more so.
I spent my days now in great perplexity, and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one day or other fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatest care and caution imaginable; and now I found to my great comfort, how happy it was that I provided for a tame flock or herd of goats; for I durst not upon any account fire my gun, especially near that side of the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more, before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true, they might have been there once, or twice; but either they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them; but in the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them, of which in its place.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen months interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dream’d always frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night: In the day great troubles overwhelm’d my mind, and in the night I dream’d often of killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might justify the doing of it; but to wave all this for a while; it was in the middle of May, on the sixteenth day I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon; for I markt all upon the post still; I say, it was the sixteenth of May, that it blew a very great storm of wind, all day, with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was after it; I know not what was the particular occasion of it; but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surpris’d with a noise of a gun as I thought fir’d at sea.
This was to be sure a surprise of a quite different nature from any I had met with before; for the notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in a trice clapt my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and pull’d it after me, and mounting it the second time, got to the top of the hill, the very moment, that a flash of fire bid me listen for a second gun, which accordingly, in about half a minute I heard; and by the sound, knew that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat.
I immediately consider’d that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fir’d these guns for signals of distress, and to obtain help: I had this presence of mind at that minute, as to think that though I could not help them, it may be they might help me; so I brought together all the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill; the wood was dry, and blaz’d freely; and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out; that I was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blaz’d up, I heard another gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter; I ply’d my fire all night long, till day broke; and when it was broad day, and the air clear’d up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail, or a hull, I could not distinguish, no not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea.
I look’d frequently at it all that day, and soon perceiv’d that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at an anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfy’d, I took my gun in my hand, and run toward the south side of the island, to the rocks where I had formerly been carry’d away with the current, and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away in the night, upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they check’d the violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate hopeless condition that ever I had been in, in all my life.
Thus what is one man’s safety, is another man’s destruction; for it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing hard at E. and E. N. E. Had they seen the island, as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have endeavour’d to have sav’d themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but their firing of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagin’d, my fire, fill’d me with many thoughts: First, I imagin’d that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and have endeavour’d to make the shore; but that the sea going very high, they might have been cast away; other times I imagin’d, that they might have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; as particularly by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliges men to stave, or take in pieces their boat; and sometimes to throw it over-board with their own hands: Other times I imagin’d, they had some other ship, or ships in company, who upon the signals of distress they had made, had taken them up, and carry’d them off: Other whiles I fancy’d, they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurry’d away by the current that I had been formerly in, were carry’d out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perishing; and that perhaps they might by this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another.
As all these were but conjectures at best; so in the condition I was in, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity them, which had still this good effect on my side, that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spar’d but mine: I learn’d here again to observe, that it is very rare that the Providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for; and may see others in worse circumstances than our own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as see room to suppose any of them were sav’d; nothing could make it rational, so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there, except the possi
bility only of their being taken up by another ship in company, and this was but meer possibility indeed; for I saw not the least signal or appearance of any such thing.
I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a strange longing or hankering of desires I felt in my soul upon this sight; breaking out sometimes thus; O that there had been but one or two; nay, or but one soul sav’d out of this ship, to have escap’d to me, that I might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature to have spoken to me, and to have convers’d with! In all the time of my solitary life, I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it.
There are some secret moving springs in the affections, which when they are set a going by some object in view, or be it some object, though not in view, yet render’d present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable.
Such were these earnest wishings, that but one man had been sav’d! O that it had been but one! I believe I repeated the words, O that it had been but one! a thousand times; and the desires were so mov’d by it, that when I spoke the words, my hands would clinch together, and my fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it would have crush’d it involuntarily; and my teeth in my head would strike together, and set against one another so strong, that for some time I could not part them again.
Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and manner of them; all I can say to them, is, to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me when I found it; though I knew not from what it should proceed; it was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas form’d in my mind, realizing the comfort, which the conversation of one of my fellow-Christians would have been to me.
But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both, forbid it; for till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whether any were sav’d out of that ship or no; and had only the affliction some days after, to see the corps of a drownded boy come on shore, at the end of the island, which was next the shipwreck: He had on no clothes, but a seaman’s wast-coat, a pair of open knee’d linnen drawers, and a blew linnen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of: He had nothing in his pocket but two Pieces of Eight, and a tobacco pipe; the last was to me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat, to this wreck; not doubting but I might find something on board, that might be useful to me; but that did not altogether press me so much, as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose life I might not only save, but might by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart, that I could not be quiet, night nor day, but I must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God’s Providence, I thought the 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 be wanting to my self if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hasten’d back to my castle, prepar’d every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum; for I had still a great deal of that left; a basket full of raisins: And thus loading my self with every thing necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again for more; my second cargo was a great bag full of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for shade; another large pot full of fresh 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 brought to my boat; and praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out, and rowing or padling the canoe along the shore, I came at last to the utmost point of the island on that side, (viz.) N. E. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture, or not to venture. I look’d on the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the island, at a distance, and which were very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those currents, I should be carry’d a vast way out 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 wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppress’d my mind, that I began to give over my enterprize, and having haled my boat into a little creek on the shore, I stept out, and sat me down upon a little rising bit of ground, very pensive and anxious, between fear and desire about my voyage; when as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turn’d, and the flood came on, upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable; upon this presently it occurr’d to me, that I should go up to the highest piece of ground 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 if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way home, with the same rapidness of the currents: This thought was no sooner in my head, but I cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently over-look’d the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide my self in my return; here I found, that as the current of the ebb set out close by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood set in close by the shore of the north side, and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
Encourag’d with this observation, I resolv’d the next morning to set out with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in the canoe, under the great watch-coat, I mentioned, I launch’d out: I made first a little out to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the current, which set eastward, and which carry’d me at a great rate, and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side current had done before, and so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate, directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it.
It was a dismal sight to look at: The ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck fast, jaum’d in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces, with the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were brought by the board; that is to say, broken short off; but her boltsprit was sound, and the head and bow appear’d firm; when I came close to her, a dog appear’d upon her, who seeing me coming, yelp’d and cry’d; and as soon as I call’d him, jump’d into the sea, to come to me, and I took him into the boat; but found him almost dead for hunger and thirst: I gave him a cake of my bread, and he eat it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow: I then gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he would have burst himself.
After this I went on board; but the first sight I met with, was two men drown’d, in the cookroom, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another: I concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing 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, nor any goods that I could see, but what was spoil’d by the water. There were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy, I knew not, which lay lower in the hold; and which, the water being ebb’d out, I could see; but they were too big to meddle with: I saw several chests, which I believe belong’d to some of the seamen, and I got two of them into the boat, without examining what was in them.
Had the stern of the ship been fix’d, and the forepart broken off, I a
m persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by what I found in these two chests, I had room to suppose, the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and if I may guess by the course she steer’d, she must have been bound from the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the Brasils, to the Havana, in the Gulph 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 the rest of her people, I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty; there were several musquets in a cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about 4 pounds of powder in it; as for the musquets, I had no occasion for them; so I left them, but took the powder-horn: I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and the same evening, about an hour within night, I reach’d the island again, weary and fatigu’d to the last degree.
I repos’d that night in the boat, and in the morning I resolv’d to harbour what I had gotten in my new cave, not to carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars: The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at the Brasils; and in a word, not at all good; but when I came to open the chests, I found several things of great use to me: For example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and fill’d with cordial waters, fine, and very good; the bottles held about three pints each, and were tipp’d with silver: I found two pots of very good succades, or sweetmeats, so fasten’d also on top, that the salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoil’d: I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen and half of linnen white handkerchiefs, and colour’d neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day; besides this, when I came to the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of Pieces of Eight, which held out about eleven hundred Pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapt up in a paper, six Doubloons of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a pound.
