The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

to have too much.

  I was something impatient, as I had observed, to have the use of myboat, though very loath to run any more hazard; and therefore sometimesI sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times Isat myself down contented enough without her. But I had a strangeuneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island, where, as Ihave said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shorelay, and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do. Thisinclination increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved totravel thither by land, and following the edge of the shore, I did so;but had any one in England been to meet such a man as I was, it musteither have frighted them, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as Ifrequently stood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at thenotion of my travelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and insuch a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure as follows:

  I had a great high shapeless cap, made of goat's skin, with a flaphanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me, as to shoot therain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in theseclimates, as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes.

  I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about themiddle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; thebreeches were made of a skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung downsuch a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to themiddle of my legs. Stockings and shoes I had none; but I had made me apair of something, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, toflap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes; but of amost barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.

  I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together withtwo thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog oneither side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little sawand a hatchet; one on one side, one on the other: I had another belt notso broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder;and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made ofgoat's skin too; in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot:at my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my heada great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella; but which, after all, was themost necessary thing I had about me, next to my gun. As for my face, thecolour of it was really not so Mulatto-like as one might expect from aman not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees ofthe equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about aquarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissars and razorssufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip,which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as Ihad seen worn by some Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the Moors did notwear such, though the Turks did: of these mustachios, or whiskers, Iwill not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them; but theywere of length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England wouldhave passed for frightful.

  But all this is by the by; for as to my figure, I had so few to observeme, that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say no more to thatpart. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was out five orsix days. I travelled first along the sea shore, directly to the placewhere I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get up upon the rocks;and, having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearerway, to the same height that I was upon before; when looking forward tothe point of the rock which lay out, and which I was to double with myboat, as I said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth andquiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than inother places.

  I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend sometime in the observing of it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tidehad occasioned it: but I was presently convinced how it was; viz. thatthe tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current ofwaters from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of thiscurrent, and that according as the wind blew more forcible from thewest, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther fromthe shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rockagain, and then the tide of the ebb being made, I plainly saw thecurrent again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half aleague from the shore; whereas, in my case, it set close upon the shore,and hurried me in my canoe along with it, which at another time it wouldnot have done.

  This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do but to observethe ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring myboat about the island again: but when I began to think of putting it inpractice, I had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of thedanger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with anypatience; but on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which wasmore safe, though more laborious; and this was, that I would build, orrather make me another periagua, or canoe; and so have one for one sideof the island, and one for the other.

  You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, two plantationsin the island; one my little fortification or tent, with the wall aboutit under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time I hadenlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One ofthese, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond mywall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined tothe rock, was all filled up with large earthen pots, of which I havegiven an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, whichwould hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores ofprovision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off short from thestraw, and the other rubbed out with my hands.

  As for my wall, made as before, with long stakes or piles, those pilesgrew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread sovery much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view,of any habitation behind them.

  Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, andupon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn-ground; which I kept dulycultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in itsseason: and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more landadjoining as fit as that.

  Besides this I had my country-seat, and I had now a tolerable plantationthere also; for first, I had my little bower, as I called it, which Ikept in repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge which circled it inconstantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always inthe inside; I kept the trees, which at first were no more than mystakes, but were now grown very firm and tall; I kept them always socut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the moreagreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle ofthis I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread overpoles set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair orrenewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch, with the skinsof the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanketlaid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved,and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here, whenever I had occasion tobe absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation.

  Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, mygoats: and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence andenclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest thegoats should break through, that I never left off, till with infinitelabour I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, andso near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, andthere was scarce room to put a hand through between them, whichafterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainyseason, made the enclosure strong, like a wall, indeed stronger thanany wall.

  This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no painsto bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support;for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at myhand, would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese, forme as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; andthat keeping them in my reach, depended entirely upon my perfecting myen
closures to such a degree, that I might be sure of keeping themtogether; which by this method indeed I so effectually secured, thatwhen these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so verythick, I was forced to pull some of them up again.

  In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally dependedon for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preservevery carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet;and indeed they were not agreeable only, but physical, wholesome,nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.

  As this was also about half way between my other habitation and theplace where I had laid up my boat, I generally staid and lay here in myway thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept allthings about or belonging to her in very good order: sometimes I wentout in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go,nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was soapprehensive of being hurried