by Daniel Defoe
see objects that were above them; so afterward Itook this method; I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them,and then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot I made among thesecreatures killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her which shegave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, thekid stood stock still by her till I came and took her up; and not onlyso; but when I carried the old one with me upon my shoulders, the kidfollowed me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam, andtook the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to havebred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, andeat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I atesparingly, and saved my provisions (my bread especially) as much aspossibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary toprovide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did forthat, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniencies I made, Ishall give a full account of in its place; but I must first give somelittle account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which it maywell be supposed were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away uponthat island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm quiteout of the course of our intended voyage, and a great way, viz. somehundreds of leagues out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind,I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that inthis desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life.The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made thesereflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself, whyProvidence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render them soabsolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely depressed,that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, andto reprove me; and particularly one day, walking with my gun in my handby the sea-side, I was very pensive upon the subject of my presentcondition, when reason, as it were, expostulating with the t'other way,thus: "Well, you are in a desolate condition, 'tis true, but prayremember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you intothe boat? Where are the ten? Why were they not saved and you lost? Whywere you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then Ipointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that isin them, and with what worse attended them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for mysubsistence, and what would have been my ease if it had not happened,which was an hundred thousand to one, that the ship floated from theplace where she first struck, and was driven so near the shore that Ihad time to get all these things out of her. What would have been mycase, if I had been to have lived in the condition in which I at firstcame on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply andprocure them? "particularly," said I, loud (though to myself), "whatshould I have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any toolsto make any thing, or to work with; without clothes, bedding, a tent, orany manner of covering?" and that now I had all these to a sufficientquantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner, asto live without my gun when my ammunition was spent; so that I had atolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived; forI considered from the beginning how I should provide for the accidentsthat might happen, and for the time that was to come, even not onlyafter my ammunition should be spent, but even after my health orstrength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition beingdestroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up by lightning;and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it lightnedand thundered, as I observed just now.
And now, being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene ofsilent life, such perhaps as was never heard of in the world before, Ishall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It was,by my account, the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said,I first set foot upon this horrid island, when the sun being, to us, inits autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head, for I reckonedmyself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutesnorth of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into mythoughts, that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, andpen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the workingdays; but to prevent this, I cut it with my knife upon a large post, incapital letters, and making it into a great cross, I set it up on theshore where I first landed, viz. "I came on shore here on the 30th ofSeptember 1659." Upon the sides of this square post, I cut every day anotch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as therest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one;and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoningof time.
In the next place we are to observe, that among the many things which Ibrought out of the ship in the several voyages, which, as abovementioned, I made to it, I got several things of less value, but not allless useful to me, which I omitted setting down before; as inparticular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain's,mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping, three or four compasses, somemathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books ofnavigation; all which I huddled together, whether I might want them orno. Also I found three very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargofrom England, and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguesebooks also, and among them two or three popish prayer-books, and severalother books; all which I carefully secured. And I must not forget, thatwe had in the ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I mayhave occasion to say something in it's place; for I carried both thecats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself,and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my firstcargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing thathe could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; I onlywanted to have him talk to me, but that he could not do. As I observedbefore, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost;and I shall shew, that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact;but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by anymeans that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwithstanding allthat I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one, as alsospade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins,and thread. As for linen, I soon learnt to want that without muchdifficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, and it was neara whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale or surroundedhabitation: the piles or stakes, which were as heavy as I could welllift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and moreby far in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cuttingand bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it intothe ground; for which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, butat last bethought myself of one of the iron crows, which however, thoughI found it, yet it made driving those posts or piles very laborious andtedious work.
But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing Ihad to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in? Nor had I any otheremployment if that had been over, at least that I could foresee, exceptthe ranging the island to seek for food, which I did more or lessevery day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance Iwas reduced to, and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not somuch to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like tohave but few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring uponthem, and afflicting my mind; and as my reason began now to master mydespondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to setthe good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish mycase from worse; and I stated it very impartially, like debtor andcreditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:
_Evil_. _Good_.
I
am cast upon a horrible But I am alive, and desolate island, void not drowned, as all my of all hope of recovery. ship's company was.
I am singled out and But I am singled out separated, as it were, too from all the ship's from all the world to be crew to be spared from miserable. death; and He that miraculously saved me from death, can deliver me from this condition.
I am divided from But I am not starved mankind, a solitaire, one and perishing on a barren banished from human society. place, affording no sustenance.
I have not clothes to But I am in a hot climate, cover me. where if I had clothes I could hardly wear them.
I am
