by Daniel Defoe
ships'companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not onelife should be spared but mine. I learnt here again to observe, that itis very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition oflife so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or otherto be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances thanour own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much assee room to suppose any of them were saved; nothing could make itrational, so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perishthere, except the possibility only of their being taken up by anothership in company: and this was but mere possibility indeed; for I saw notthe least signal or appearance of any such thing.
I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a strangelonging, or hankering of desire, I felt in my soul upon this sight;breaking out sometimes thus: "O that there had been but one or two, nay,but one soul saved out of the ship, to have escaped to me, that I mightbut have had one companion, one fellow-creature to have spoken to me,and to have conversed with!" In all the time of my solitary life, Inever felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of myfellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at want of it.
There are some secret moving springs in the affections, which, whenthey are set a going by some object in view, or be it some object thoughnot in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power ofimagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to suchviolent eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it isinsupportable.
Such were these earnest wishings, "That but one man had been saved! Othat it had been but one!" I believe I repeated the words, "O that ithad been but one!" a thousand times; and my desires were so moved by it,that when I spoke the words, my hands would clinch together, and myfingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing inmy hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; and my teeth in my headwould strike together, and set against one another so strong, that forsome time I could not part them again.
Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and manner ofthem: all I can say of them is, to describe the fact, which was eversurprising to me when I found it, though I knew not from what it shouldproceed; it was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strongideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfort which the conversation ofone of my fellow-christians would have been to me.
But it was not to be; either their fate, or mine, or both, forbad it;for till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whetherany were saved out of that ship, or no; and had only the affliction somedays after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore, at the endof the island which was next the shipwreck: he had on no clothes but aseaman's waistcoat, a pair of open kneed linen drawers, and a blue linenshirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he wasof: he had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight, and atobacco-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 tothis wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that mightbe useful to me; but that did not altogether press me so much, as thepossibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whoselife I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort myown to the last degree: and this thought clung so to my heart, that Icould not be quiet night nor day, but I must venture out in my boat onboard this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence, I thoughtthe impression was so strong upon my mind, that it could not beresisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and that Ishould be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a greatpot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum, (for I hadstill a great deal of that left) a basket full of raisins: and thusloading myself with every thing necessary, I went down to my boat, gotthe 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 fullof rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for shade, another largepot full of lush water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, orbarley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk, and acheese: 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 orpaddling the canoe along the shore, I came at last to the utmost pointof the island, on that side, viz. N.E. And now I was to launch out intothe ocean, and either to venture, or not to venture; I looked on therapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the island, at adistance, and which were very terrible to me, from the remembrance ofthe hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to fail me; for Iforesaw, that if I was driven into either of those currents, I shouldbe carried a vast way out to sea and perhaps out of my reach, or sightof the island again; and that then, as my boat was but small, if anylittle gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to give over myenterprise, and having haled my boat into a little creek on the shore, Istepped out, and sat me down upon a little spot of rising ground, verypensive and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, asI was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the floodcame on, upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable: uponthis it presently occurred to me, that I should go up to the highestpiece of ground I could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets ofthe tide or currents lay, when the flood came in, that I might judgewhether, if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be drivenanother way home, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thoughtwas no sooner in my head, but I cast my eye upon a little hill whichsufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clearview of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guidemyself in my return: here I found, that as the current of the ebb setout close by the south point of the island, so the current of the floodset in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing todo but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I should dowell enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next morning to set outwith the first of the tide; and reposing myself for that night in thecanoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I madefirst a little out to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefitof the current, which sat eastward, and which carried me at a greatrate, and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side current had donebefore, and so as to take from me all government of the boat; but havinga strong steerage with my paddle, I went, I say, 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 took at: the ship, which by its building wasSpanish, stuck fast, jambed in between two rocks; all the stern andquarter 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 main-mastand fore-mast were brought by the board, that is to say, broken shortoff, but her boltsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm.When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, which, seeing mecoming, yelped and cried, and as soon as I called him, jumped into thesea to come to me: and I took him into the boat, but found him almostdead for hunger and thirst: I gave him a cake of my bread, and he atelike a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow: Ithen gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I wouldhave let him, he would have burst himself.
After this I went on board. The first sight I met with was two mendrowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their armsfast about one another. I concluded, as is indeed probable, that whenthe ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and socontinually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and werestrangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if theyhad been under water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in theship that had life, nor any goods that I could see, but what werespoiled by the water: the
re were some casks of liquor, whether wine orbrandy I knew not, which lay lower in the hold, and which, the waterbeing ebbed out, I could see; but they were too big to meddle with: Isaw several chests, which I believed belonged to some of the seamen, andI got two of them into the boat without examining what was in them.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the fore part broken off, I ampersuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by what I found in thesetwo chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealthon board; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she must havebeen bound from the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the southpart of America, beyond the Brasils, to the Havanna, in the Gulf ofMexico, and so perhaps to Spain: she had, no doubt, a great treasure inher, but of no use at that time to any body; and what became of the restof her people I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of abouttwenty
