Robinson Crusoe — in Words of One Syllable

by Daniel Defoe

thelast two, that in a few days they sent them out of doors, and would haveno more to do with them, nor would they for a long while give them foodto eat.

  So the two poor men had to live as well as they could by hard work, andthey set up their tents on the north shore of the isle, to be out of theway of the wild men, who were wont to land on the east side. Here theybuilt them two huts, one to lodge in, and one to lay up their storesin; and the men from Spain gave them some corn for seed, as well as somepeas which I had left them. They soon learned to dig, and plant, andhedge in their land, in the mode which I had set for them, and in short,to lead good lives, so that I shall now call them the "two good men."

  But when the three bad men saw, this, they were full of spite, and cameone day to tease and vex them. They told them that the isle was theirown, and that no one else had a right to build on it, if they did notpay rent. The two good men thought at first that they were in jest, andtold them to come and sit down, and see what fine homes they had built,and say what rent they would ask.

  But one of the three said they should soon see that they were not injest, and took a torch in his hand, and put it to the roof of the but,and would have set it on fire, had not one of the two good men trod thefire out with his feet. The bad man was in such a rage at this, that heran at him with a pole he had in his hand, and this brought on a fight,the end of which was that the three men had to stand off. But in a shorttime they came back, and trod down the corn, and shot the goats andyoung kids, which the poor men had got to bring up tame for their store.

  One day when the two men were out, they came to their home, and said,"Ha! there's the nest, but the birds are flown." They then set to workto pull down both the huts, and left not a stick, nor scarce a sign onthe ground to show where the tents had stood. They tore up, too, all thegoods and stock that they could find, and when they had done this, theytold it all to the men of Spain, and said, "You, sirs, shall have thesame sauce, if you do not mend your ways."

  They then fell to blows and hard words, but Carl had them bound incords, and took their arms from them. The men of Spain then said theywould do them no harm, and if they would live at peace they would helpthem, and that they should live with them as they had done till thattime, but they could not give them back their arms for three or fourmonths.

  One night Carl--whom I shall call "the chief," as he took the lead ofall the rest--felt a great weight on his mind, and could get no sleep,though he was quite well in health. He lay still for some time, but ashe, did not feel at case, he got up, and took a look out. But as it wastoo dark to see far, and he heard no noise, he went back to his bed.Still it was all one, he could not sleep; and though he knew not why,his thoughts would give him no rest.

  He then woke up one of his friends, and told him how it had been withhim. "Say you so?" said he "What if there should be some bad plot atwork near us!" They then set off to the top of the hill, where I waswont to go, and from thence they saw the light of a fire, quite a shortway from them, and heard the sounds of men, not of one or two, but of agreat crowd. We need not doubt that the chief and the man with him nowran back at once, to tell all the rest what they had seen; and when theyheard the news, they could not be kept close where they were, but mustall run out to see how things stood.

  At last they thought that the best thing to do would be, while it wasdark, to send old Jaf out as a spy, to learn who they were, and whatthey meant to do. When the old man had been gone an hour or two, hebrought word back that he had been in the midst of the foes, though theyhad not seen him, and that they were in two sets or tribes who were atwar, and had come there to fight. And so it was, for in a short timethey heard the noise of the fight, which went on for two hours, and atthe end, with three loud shouts or screams, they left the isle in theirboats. Thus my friends were set free from all their fears, and saw nomore of their wild foes for some time.

  One day a whim took the three bad men that they would go to the mainland, from whence the wild men came, and try if they could not seizesome of them, and bring them home as slaves, so as to make them do thehard part of their work for them. The chief gave them all the arms andstores that they could want, and a large boat to go in, but when theybade them "God speed," no one thought that they would find their wayback to the isle. But lo! in three weeks and a day, they did in truthcome back. One of the two good men was the first to catch sight of them,and tell the news to his friends.

  The men said that they had found the land in two days, and that the wildmen gave them roots and fish to eat, and were so kind as to bring downeight slaves to take back with them, three of whom were men and fivewere girls. So they gave their good hosts an axe, an old key, and aknife, and brought off the slaves in their boat to the isle. As thechief and his friends did not care to wed the young girls, the five menwho had been the crew of Paul's ship drew lots for choice, so that eachhad a wife, and the three men slaves were set to work for the two goodmen, though there was not much for them to do.

  But one of them ran off to the woods, and they could not hear of himmore. They had good cause to think that he found his way home, as inthree or four weeks some wild men came to the isle, and when theyhad had their feast and dance, they went off in two days' time. So myfriends might well fear that if this slave got safe home, he would besure to tell the wild men that they were in the isle, and in what partof it they might be found. And so it came to pass, for in less than twomonths, six boats of wild men, with eight or ten men in each boat, cameto the north side of the isle, where they had not been known to come upto that time.

  The foe had brought their boats to land, not more than a mile from thetent of the two good men, and it was there that the slave who had runoff had been kept. These men had the good luck to see the boats whenthey were a long way off, so that it took them quite an hour from thattime to reach the shore.

  My friends now had to think how that hour was to be spent. The firstthing they did was to bind the two slaves that were left, and to taketheir wives, and as much of their stores as they could, to some darkplace in the woods. They then sent a third slave to the chief and hismen, to tell them the news, and to ask for help.

  They had not gone far in the woods, when they saw, to their great griefand rage, that their huts were in flames, and that the wild men ran toand fro, like beasts in search of prey. But still our men went on, anddid not halt, till they came to a thick part of the wood, where thelarge trunk of an old tree stood, and in this tree they both took theirpost. But they had not been there long, when two of the wild men ranthat way, and they saw three more, and then five more, who all ran thesame way, as if they knew where they were.

  Our two poor men made up their minds to let the first two pass, and thentake the three and the five in line, as they came up, but to fire at oneat a time, as the first shot might chance to hit all three.

  So the man who was to fire put three or four balls in his gun, and froma hole in the tree, took a sure aim, and stood still till the three wildmen came so near that he could not miss them. They soon saw that one ofthese three was the slave that had fled from them, as they both knew himwell, and they made up their minds that they would kill him, though theyshould both fire.

  At the first shot two of the wild men fell dead, and the third had agraze on his arm, and though not much hurt, sat down on the ground withloud screams and yells. When the five men who came next, heard the soundof the gun and the slave's cries, they stood still at first, as if theywere struck dumb with fright. So our two men both shot off their guns inthe midst of them, and then ran up and bound them safe with cords.

  They then went to the thick part of the wood, where they had put theirwives and slaves, to see if all were safe there, and to their joy theyfound that though the wild men had been quite near them, they had notfound them out. While they were here, the chief and his men came up, andtold them that the rest had gone to take care of my old house and grove,in case the troop of wild men should spread so far that way.

  They then went back to the burnt huts, and when the
y came in sight ofthe shore, they found that their foes had all gone out to sea. So theyset to work to build up their huts, and as all the men in the isle lentthem their aid, they were soon in a way to thrive once more. For five orsix months they saw no more of the wild men. But one day a large fleetof more than a score of boats came in sight, full of men who had bows,darts, clubs, swords, and such like arms of war, and our friends wereall in great fear.

  As they came at dusk, and at the East side of the isle, our men had thewhole night to think of what they should do. And as they knew that themost safe way was to hide and lie in wait, they first of all took downthe huts which were built for the two good men, and drove their goats tothe cave, for they thought the wild men would go straight there as soonas it was day, and play the old game.

  The next day they took up their post with all their force at the wood,near the home of the two men, to wait for the foe. They gave no guns tothe