The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

andfish-ponds in the garden, all paved at the bottom and sides with thesame, and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed ofthe porcelain earth, and burnt whole.

  As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be allowed toexcel in it; but I am very sure they _excel_ in their accounts of it;for they told me such incredible things of their performance incrockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to relate, as knowing itcould not be true.--One told me, in particular, of a workman that made aship, with all its tackle, and masts, and sails, in earthenware, bigenough to carry fifty men. If he had told me he launched it, and made avoyage to Japan in it, I might have said something to it indeed; but asit was, I knew the whole story, which was, in short, asking pardon forthe word, that the fellow lied; so I smiled, and said nothing to it.

  This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which theleader of it for the day fined me about the value of three shillings;and told me, if it had been three days journey without the wall, as itwas three days within, he must have fined me four times as much, andmade me ask pardon the next council-day: so I promised to be moreorderly; for, indeed, I found afterwards the orders made for keeping alltogether were absolutely necessary for our common safety.

  In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for afortification against the Tartars; and a very great work it is, goingover hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks areimpassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter,or, indeed, climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder them.They tell us, its length is near a thousand English miles, but that thecountry is five hundred, in a straight measured line, which the wallbounds, without measuring the windings and turnings it takes: 'tis aboutfour fathom high, and as many thick in some places.

  I stood still an hour, or thereabouts, without trespassing on ourorders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; I say, I stoodstill an hour to look at it, on every side, near and far off; I mean,what was within my view; and the guide of our caravan, who had beenextolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear myopinion of it. I told him it was a most excellent thing to keep off theTartars, which he happened not to understand as I meant it, and so tookit for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed: "O, Seignior Inglese,"said he, "you speak in colours."--"In colours!" said I; "what do youmean by that?"--"Why, you speak what looks white this way, and blackthat way; gay one way, and dull another way: you tell him it is a goodwall to keep out Tartars; you tell me, by that, it is good for nothingbut to keep out Tartars; or, will keep out none but Tartars. Iunderstand you, Seignior Inglese, I understand you," said he, joking;"but Seignior Chinese understand you his own way."

  "Well," said I, "Seignior, do you think it would stand out an army ofour country-people, with a good train of artillery; or our engineers,with two companies of miners? Would they not batter it down in tendays, that an army might enter in battalia, or blow it up in the air,foundation and all, that there should be no sign of it left?"--"Ay, ay,"said he, "I know that." The Chinese wanted mightily to know what I said,and I gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for we were thenalmost out of their country, and he was to leave us in a little timeafterwards; but when he knew what I had said, he was dumb all the restof the way, and we heard no more of his fine story of the Chinese powerand greatness while he staid.

  After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something likethe Picts wall, so famous in Northumberland, and built by the Romans, webegan to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people ratherconfined to live in fortified towns and cities, as being subject to theinroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies, andtherefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of anopen country.

  And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan,as we travelled; for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about; butwhen I came to see them distinctly, I wondered how that the Chineseempire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows; for they are amere herd or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order, and understandingno discipline, or manner of fight.

  Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing, and arefit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which wasafter we entered the wilder part of the country. Our leader for the daygave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they call it; andwhat was this but hunting of sheep! However, it may be called huntingtoo; for the creatures are the wildest, and swiftest of foot, that everI saw of their kind; only they will not run a great way, and you aresure of sport when you begin the chase; for they appear generally bythirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep togetherwhen they fly.

  In pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with aboutforty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton as we were, or whetherthey looked for another kind of prey, I know not; but as soon as theysaw us, one of them blew a kind of horn very loud, but with a barbaroussound that I had never heard before, and, by the way, never care to hearagain. We all supposed this was to call their friends about them; and soit was; for in less than half a quarter of an hour, a troop of forty orfifty more appeared at about a mile distance; but our work was overfirst, as it happened.

  One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst us; and assoon as he heard the horn, he told us, in short, that we had nothing todo but to charge them immediately, without loss of time; and, drawing usup in a line, he asked, if we were resolved? We told him, we were readyto follow him: so he rode directly up to them. They stood gazing at us,like a mere crowd, drawn up in no order, nor shewing the face of anyorder at all; but as soon as they saw us advance, they let fly theirarrows; which, however, missed us very happily: it seems they mistooknot their aim, but their distance; for their arrows all fell a littleshort of us, but with so true an aim, that had we been about twentyyards nearer, we must have had several men wounded, if not killed.

  Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance, we fired,and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our shot fullgallop, resolving to fall in among them sword in hand; for so our boldScot that led us, directed. He was, indeed, but a merchant, but hebehaved with that vigour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with sucha cool courage too, that I never saw any man in action fitter forcommand. As soon as we came up to them, we fired our pistols in theirfaces, and then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusionimaginable; the only stand any of them made was on our right, wherethree of them stood, and, by signs, called the rest to come back tothem, having a kind of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hangingat their backs. Our brave commander, without asking any body to followhim, galloped up close to them, and with his fusil knocked one of themoff his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ranaway; and thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it,viz. that all our mutton that we had in chase got away. We had not a mankilled or hurt; but, as for the Tartars, there were about five of themkilled; how many were wounded, we knew not; but this we knew, that theother party was so frighted with the noise of our guns, that they fled,and never made any attempt upon us.

  We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore theTartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days weentered a vast great wild desert, which held us three days and nightsmarch; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leatherbottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heard they do in thedeserts of Arabia.

  I asked our guides, whose dominion this was in? and they told me thiswas a kind of border that might be called No Man's Land; being part ofthe Great Karakathy, or Grand Tartary; but that, however, it wasreckoned to China; that there was no care taken here to preserve it fromthe inroads of thieves; and therefore it was reckoned the worst desertin the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger.

  In passing this wilderness, which, I confess, was at the first view veryfrightful to me, we saw two or three times little parties of theTartars,
but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have nodesign upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil, if they hadnothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them; we let them go.

  Once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and gaze at us;whether it was to consider what they should do, viz. to attack us, ornot attack us, we knew not; but when we were passed at some distance bythem, we made a rear guard of forty men, and stood ready for them,letting the caravan pass half a mile, or thereabouts, before us. After awhile they marched off, only we found they assaulted us with five arrowsat their parting; one of which wounded a horse, so that it disabled him;and we left him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a goodfarrier. We suppose they might shoot more arrows, which might fall shortof us; but we saw no more arrows, or Tartars, at that time.

  We travelled near a month after this, the ways being not