The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

governor, and beg leave for mepresently, with the captain, and one more, besides eight seamen, to comeon shore, and no more; and this upon condition absolutely capitulatedfor, that we should not offer to land any goods out of the ship, or tocarry any person away without licence.

  They were so strict with us, as to landing any goods, that it was withextreme difficulty that I got on shore three bales of English goods,such as fine broad-cloths, stuffs, and some linen, which I had broughtfor a present to my partner.

  He was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though (like me) he came fromlittle at first; and though he knew not that I had the least design ofgiving him any thing, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions,wine, and sweetmeats, worth above thirty moidores, including sometobacco, and three or four fine medals in gold. But I was even with himin my present, which, as I have said, consisted of fine broad-cloth,English stuffs, lace, and fine Hollands. Also, I delivered him about thevalue of 100_l_. sterling, in the same goods, for other uses: and Iobliged him to set up the sloop which I had brought with me fromEngland, as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send therefreshments I intended to my plantation.

  Accordingly he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few days, forshe was already framed; and I gave the master of her such instruction ashe could not miss the place; nor did he miss it, as I had an accountfrom my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small cargo Ihad sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been on shore with methere, offered to go with the sloop, and settle there, upon my letterto the governor Spaniard, to allot him a sufficient quantity of land fora plantation; and giving him some clothes, and tools for his plantingwork, which he said he understood, having been an old planter inMaryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain.

  I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired; and, as an addition,I gave him the savage which we had taken prisoner of war, to be hisslave, and ordered the governor Spaniard to give him his share ofeverything he wanted, with the rest.

  When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me, there was acertain very honest fellow, a Brasil planter of his acquaintance, whohad fallen into he displeasure of the church: "I know not what thematter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I think he is aheretic in his heart; and he has been obliged to conceal himself forfear of the Inquisition;" that he would be very glad of such anopportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two daughters; and ifI would let them go to the island, and allot them a plantation, he wouldgive them a small stock to begin with; for the officers of theInquisition had seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothingleft but a little household stuff, and two slaves; "And," adds he,"though I hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into theirhands, for he will assuredly be burnt alive if he does."

  I granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them; and weconcealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, tillthe sloop put out to go to sea; and then (having put all their goods onboard the sloop some time before) we put them on board the sloop, aftershe was got out of the bay.

  Our seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and their stock,indeed, was much alike, rich in tools, and in preparations, for a farm;but nothing to begin with, but as above. However, they carried over withthem (which was worth all the rest) some materials for plantingsugar-canes, with some plants of canes; which he (I mean the Portugalman) understood very well.

  Among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the island, I sentthem, by this sloop, three milch-cows and five calves, about twenty-twohogs, among them, three sows big with pig, two mares, and a stone-horse.

  For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three Portugalwomen to go; and recommended it to them to marry them, and use themkindly. I could have procured more women, but I remembered that the poorpersecuted man had two daughters, and there were but five of theSpaniards that wanted; the rest had wives of their own, though inanother country.

  All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, verywelcome to my old inhabitants, who were now (with this addition) betweensixty and seventy people, besides little children; of which there were agreat many: I found letters at London from them all, by way of Lisbon,when I came back to England, being sent back to the Brasils by thissloop; of which I shall take some notice in its place.

  I have now done with my island, and all manner of discourse about it;and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums, would do well to turn histhoughts entirely from it, and expect to read only of the follies of anold man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men,to beware of the like; not cooled by almost forty years misery anddisappointments; not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation; notmade cautious by affliction and distress beyond irritation.

  I had no more business to go to the East Indies, than a man at fullliberty, and having committed no crime, has to go to the turnkey atNewgate, and desire him to lock him up among the prisoners there, andstarve him. Had I taken a small vessel from England, and gone directlyto the island; had I loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all thenecessaries for the plantation, and for my people; took a patent fromthe government here, to have secured my property, in subjection only tothat of England, which, to be sure, I might have obtained; had I carriedover cannon and ammunition, servants, and people to plant, and, takingpossession of the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name ofEngland, and increased it with people, as I might easily have done; hadI then settled myself there, and sent the ship back, loaded with goodrice, as I might also have done in six months time, and ordered myfriends to have fitted her out again for our supply; had I done this,and staid there myself, I had, at least, acted like a man of commonsense; but I was possessed with a wandering spirit, scorned alladvantages, pleased myself with being the patron of these people I hadplaced there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty majestic way, likean old patriarchal monarch; providing for them, as if I had been fatherof the whole family, as well as of the plantation: but I never so muchas pretended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or toacknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one nationmore than another; nay, I never so much as gave the place a name; butleft it as I found it, belonging to no man; and the people under nodiscipline or government but my own; who, though I had an influence overthem as father and benefactor, had no authority or power to act orcommand one way or other, farther than voluntary consent moved them tocomply: yet even this, had I staid there, would have done well enough;but as I rambled from them, and came thither no more, the last letters Ihad from any of them, were by my partner's means, who afterwards sentanother sloop to the place; and who sent me word, though I had not theletter till five years after it was written, that they went on butpoorly, were malecontent with their long stay there; that Will Atkinswas dead; that five of the Spaniards were come away; and that thoughthey had not been much molested by the savages, yet they had had someskirmishes with them; that they begged of him to write to me to thinkof the promise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see theirown country again before they died.

  But I was gone a wild-goose chase indeed, and they who will have anymore of me, must be content to follow me through a new variety offollies, hardships, and wild adventures; wherein the justice ofProvidence may be duly observed, and we may see how easily Heaven cangorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes to beour affliction and punish us most severely with those very things whichwe think it would be our utmost happiness to be allowed in.

  Let no wise man flatter himself with the strength of his own judgment,as if he was able to choose any particular station of life for himself.Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him;and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particularaffections are generally his worst counsellors.

  I say this with respect to the impetuous desire I had from a youth towander into the world, and how evident it now was that this principlewas preserved in me for my punis
hment. How it came on, the manner, thecircumstance, and the conclusion of it, it is easy to give youhistorically, and with its utmost variety of particulars. But the secretends of Divine Providence, in thus permitting us to be hurried down thestream of our own desires, are only to be understood of those who canlisten to the voice of Providence, and draw religious consequences fromGod's justice and their own mistakes.

  Be it had I business or no business, away I went. It is no time now toenlarge any farther upon the reason or absurdity of my own conduct; butto come to the history--I was embarked for the voyage, and the voyageI went.

  I shall only add here, that my honest and truly pious clergyman left mehere; a ship being ready to go to Lisbon, he asked me leave to gothither; being still as he observed, bound never to finish any voyagehe began. How happy had it been for me if I had gone with him!

  But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints are best. Had I gonewith him, I had never