by Daniel Defoe
whereas, if I put on my hat, itwould presently go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the few rags I had,which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn out all thewaistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not makejackets out of the great watch-coats which I had by me, and with suchother materials as I had; so I set to work a-tailoring, or rather indeeda-botching; for I made most piteous work of it. However, I made shift tomake two or three waistcoats, which I hoped would serve me a greatwhile; as for breeches or drawers, I made but very sorry shift indeed,till afterwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that Ikilled, I mean four-footed ones; and I had hung them up stretched outwith sticks in the sun; by which means some of them were so dry andhard, that they were fit for little; but others, it seems, were veryuseful. The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head,with the hair on the outside to shoot off the rain; and this I performedso well, that after this I made a suit of clothes wholly of those skins;that is to say, a waistcoat and breeches open at the knees, and bothloose; for they were rather wanted to keep me cool, than to keep mewarm. I must not omit to acknowledge, that they were wretchedly made;for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor; however, they weresuch as I made a very good shift with; and when I was abroad, if ithappened to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and cap being outmost, I waskept very dry.
After this I spent a deal of time and pains to make me an umbrella: Iwas indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one: I hadseen them made in the Brasils, where they are very useful in the greatheats which are there; and I felt the heats every jot as great here, andgreater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to bemuch abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains asthe heats. I took a world of pains at it, and was a great while before Icould make any thing likely to hold; nay, after I thought I had hit theway, I spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind; but at last Imade one that answered indifferently well. The main difficulty I foundwas to make it to let down: I could make it to spread; but if it did notlet down too, and draw in, it would not be portable for me any way, butjust over my head, which would not do. However, at last, as I said, Imade one to answer; I covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so thatit cast off the rain like a penthouse, and kept off the sun soeffectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather, withgreater advantage than I could before in the coolest; and when I had noneed of it, I could close it, and carry it under my arm.
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed byresigning to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon thedisposal of his providence: this made my life better than sociable; forwhen I began to regret the want of conversation, I would ask myself,whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as I hope Imay say, with even my Maker, by ejaculations and petitions, was notbetter than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world?
I cannot say, that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thinghappened to me; but I lived on in the same course, in the same postureand place, just as before. The chief thing I was employed in, besides myyearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, ofboth which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of theyear's provisions beforehand; I say, besides this yearly labour, and mydaily labour of going out with my gun, I had one labour to make me acanoe, which at last I finished: so that by digging a canal to it, sixfeet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almost halfa mile. As for the first, that was so vastly big, as I made it withoutconsidering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I should be able to launchit; so never being able to bring it to the water, or bring the water toit, I was obliged to let it lie where it was, as a memorandum to teachme to be wiser next time. Indeed the next time, though I could not get atree proper for it, and was in a place where I could not get the waterto it, at any less distance than, as I have said, of near half a mile;yet as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave it over; andthough I was near two years about it, yet I never grudged my labour, inhopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it wasnot at all answerable to the design which I had in view, when I made thefirst; I mean of venturing over to the Terra Firma, where it was aboveforty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to putan end to that design, and now I thought no more of it. But as I had aboat, my next design was to make a tour round the island: for as I hadbeen on the other side, in one place, crossing, as I have alreadydescribed it, over the land, so the discoveries I made in that journeymade me very eager to see the other parts of the coast; and now I had aboat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the island.
For this purpose, and that I might do every thing with discretion andconsideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat, and made a sail toit out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails, which lay in store,and of which I had a great store by me.
Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I found she wouldsail very well. Then I made little lockers and boxes at each end of myboat, to put provisions, necessaries, and ammunition, &c. into, to bekept dry, either from rain, or the spray of the sea; and a little longhollow place I cut in the inside of the boat, where I could lay my gun,making a flap to hang down over it to keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to standover my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning; andthus I every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but neverwent far out, nor far from the little creek; but at last, being eager toview the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my tour,and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage; putting in twodozen of my loaves (cakes I should rather call them) of barley-bread; anearthen pot full of parched rice, a food I ate a great deal of, a littlebottle of rum, half a goat, and powder with shot for killing more, andtwo large watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned before, I hadsaved out of the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and theother to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign, or mycaptivity, which you please, that I set out on this voyage, and I foundit much longer than I expected; for though the island itself was notvery large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a greatledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water,some under it; and beyond this a shoal of sand, lying dry half a leaguemore; so that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to doublethat point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my enterprise,and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out tosea, and above all, doubting how I should get back again; so I came toan anchor, for I had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of brokengrappling which I got out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun, and went on shore, climbing up anhill, which seemed to over-look that point, where I saw the full extentof it, and resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived astrong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, evencame close to the point; and I took the more notice of it, because Isaw there might be some danger, that when I came into it, I might becarried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make theisland again. And indeed, had I not gotten first upon this hill, Ibelieve it would have been so; for there was the same current on theother side of the island, only that it set off at a farther distance;and I saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so I had nothing todo but to get out of the first current, and I should presently be inan eddy.
I lay here, however, two days; because the wind blowing pretty fresh (atE.S.E. and that being just contrary to the said current) made a greatbreach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me to keeptoo close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because ofthe stream.
The third day in the morning,
the wind having abated over-night, the seawas calm, and I ventured; but I am a warning-piece again to all rash andignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I was notmy boat's length from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth ofwater, and a current like a sluice of a mill. It carried my boat alongwith it with such violence, that all I could do could not keep her somuch as on the edge of it: but I found it hurried me farther and fartherout from the eddy, which was on the left hand. There was no windstirring to help me, and all that I could do with my paddles signifiednothing; and now I began to give myself over for lost; for, as thecurrent was on both sides the island, I knew in a few leagues distancethey must join again, and then I was irrecoverably gone; nor did I seeany possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no prospect before me butof perishing; not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starvingfor hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost asI could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and
