The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

month will maintain them a year; and as the wayof living is not expensive, so it is not hard to get sufficient toourselves: so that objection is out of doors."

  I have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable conversationI had with this truly great man; in all which he shewed, that his mindwas so inspired with a superior knowledge of things, so supported byreligion, as well as by a vast share of wisdom, that his contempt of theworld was really as much as he had expressed, and that he was always thesame to the last, as will appear in the story I am going to tell.

  I had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter I thought it tobe. The cold was so intense, that I could not so much as look abroadwithout being wrapt in furs, and a mask of fur before my face, or rathera hood, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight. The littledaylight we had, as we reckoned, for three months, not above five hoursa day, or six at most; only that the snow lying on the groundcontinually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. Ourhorses were kept (or rather starved) under ground; and as for ourservants, (for we hired servants here to look after our horses andourselves) we had every now and then their fingers and toes to thaw, andtake care of, lest they should mortify and fall off.

  It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the wallsthick, the lights small, and the glass all double. Our food was chieflythe flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; good bread enough, butbaked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh ofmutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good beef. All the stores ofprovision for the winter are laid up in the summer, and well cured. Ourdrink was water mixed with aqua vitae instead of brandy; and, for atreat, mead instead of wine; which, however, they have excellent good.The hunters, who ventured abroad all weathers, frequently brought us infresh venison, very fat and good; and sometimes bear's flesh, but we didnot much care for the last. We had a good stock of tea, with which wetreated our friends as above; and, in a word, we lived very cheerfullyand well, all things considered.

  It was now March, and the days grown considerably longer, and theweather at least tolerable; so other travellers began to prepare sledgesto carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be going; but mymeasures being fixed, as I have said, for Archangel, and not for Muscovyor the Baltic, I made no motion, knowing very well, that the ships fromthe south do not set out for that part of the world till May or June;and that if I was there at the beginning of August, it would be as soonas any ships would be ready to go away; and therefore, I say, I made nohaste to be gone, as others did; in a word, I saw a great many people,nay, all the travellers, go away before me. It seems, every year they gofrom thence to Moscow for trade; viz. to carry furs, and buy necessarieswith them, which they bring back to furnish their shops; also otherswent on the same errand to Archangel; but then they also, being to comeback again above eight hundred miles, went all out before me.

  In short, about the latter end of May I began to make all ready to packup; and as I was doing this, it occurred to me, that seeing all thesepeople were banished by the czar of Muscovy to Siberia, and yet, whenthey came there, were at liberty to go whither they would; why did theynot then go away to any part of the world wherever they thought fit? andI began to examine what should hinder them from making such an attempt.

  But my wonder was over, when I entreated upon that subject with theperson I have mentioned, who answered me thus: "Consider, first," saidhe, "the place where we are; and, secondly, the condition we are in;especially," said he, "the generality of the people who are banishedhither. We are surrounded," said he, "with stronger things than bars andbolts: on the north side is an unnavigable ocean, where ship neversailed, and boat never swam; neither, if we had both, could we knowwhither to go with them. Every other way," said he, "we have above athousand miles to pass through the czar's own dominions, and by waysutterly impassable, except by the roads made by the government, andthrough the towns garrisoned by its troops; so that we could neitherpass undiscovered by the road, or subsist any other way: so that it isin vain to attempt it."

  I was silenced indeed, at once, and found that they were in a prison,every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle ofMoscow; however, it came into my thoughts, that I might certainly bemade an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent person, andthat it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no guardover him in the country; and as I was not going to Moscow, but toArchangel, and that I went in the nature of a caravan, by which I wasnot obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the desert, but couldencamp every night where I would, might easily pass uninterrupted toArchangel, where I could immediately secure him on board an English orDutch ship, and carry him off safe along with me; and as to hissubsistence, and other particulars, that should be my care, till heshould better supply himself.

  He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the while Ispoke; nay, I could see in his very face, that what I said put hisspirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently changed, hiseyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it might be evenperceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately answer me when Ihad done, and, as it were, expected what he would say to it; and afterhe had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, "How unhappy are we!unguided creatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendshipare made snares to us, and we are made tempters of one another! My dearfriend," said he, "your offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, isso disinterested in itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, thatI must have very little knowledge of the world, if I did not both wonderat it, and acknowledge the obligation I have upon me to you for it: butdid you believe I was sincere in what I have so often said to you of mycontempt of the world? Did you believe I spoke my very soul to you, andthat I had really maintained that degree of felicity here, that hadplaced me above all that the world could give me, or do for me? Did youbelieve I was sincere, when I told you I would not go back, if I wasrecalled even to be all that once I was in the court, and with thefavour of the czar my master? Did you believe me, my friend, to be anhonest man, or did you think me to be a boasting hypocrite?" Here hestopped, as if he would hear what I would say; but, indeed, I soon afterperceived, that he stopped because his spirits were in motion: his heartwas full of struggles, and he could not go on. I was, I confess,astonished at the thing, as well as at the man, and I used somearguments with him to urge him to set himself free; that he ought tolook upon this as a door opened by Heaven for his deliverance, and asummons by Providence, who has the care and good disposition of allevents, to do himself good, and to render himself useful in the world.

  He had by this time recovered himself. "How do you know, Sir," said he,warmly, "but that, instead of a summons from Heaven, it may be a feintof another instrument, representing, in all the alluring colours to me,the show of felicity as a deliverance, which may in itself be my snare,and tend directly to my ruin? Here I am free from the temptation ofreturning to my former miserable greatness; there I am not sure, butthat all the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which I knowremain in my nature, may revive and take root, and, in a word, againoverwhelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now master ofhis soul's liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his own senses, inthe full possession of all personal liberty. Dear Sir, let me remain inthis blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather thanpurchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason,and at the expense of the future happiness which now I have in my view,but shall then, I fear, quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh, aman, a mere man, have passions and affections as likely to possess andoverthrow me as any man: O be not my friend and my tempter bothtogether!"

  If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent,looking at him; and, indeed, admired what I saw. The struggle in hissoul was so great, that, though the weather was extremely cold, it puthim into a most violent sweat, and I found he wanted to give vent to hismind; so I said a word or two, that I would leave him to consid
er of it,and wait on him again; and then I withdrew to my own apartment.

  About two hours after, I heard somebody at or near the door of the room,and I was going to open the door; but he had opened it, and come in: "Mydear friend," said he, "you had almost overset me, but I am recovered:do not take it ill that I do not close with your offer; I assure you, itis not for want of a sense of the kindness of it in you; and I come tomake the most sincere acknowledgment of it to you; but, I hope, I havegot the victory over myself."

  "My lord," said I, "I hope you are fully satisfied, that you did notresist the call of Heaven."--"Sir," said he, "if it had been fromHeaven, the same power would have influenced me to accept it; but Ihope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from Heaven that I decline it;and I have an infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you shall