th and to set in the description of good and evil on the credit side of the account having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition and given over looking out to see to see if I should spy a ship I say giving over these things I begun to apply myself to arrange my way of living and to make things as easy to me as I could I've already described my habitation which was a tent under the side of a rock surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables but I might now rather call it a wall for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turf about two feet thick on the outside and after some time it was a year and a half I raised rafters from it leaning to the rock and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees and such things as I could get to keep out the rain which I found at some times of the year very violent I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale and into the cave which I had made behind me but I must observe too that at first this was a confused heap of goods as they lay in no order so they took up all my place I had no room to turn myself so I set myself to enlarge my cave and work farther into the earth for it was a loose sandy rock which yielded easily to the labor I was stowed on it and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey I worked sideways to the right hand into the rock and then turning again to the right worked quite out and made me a door to come out to the left side of my pale or fortification this gave me not only egress and regress as it was a way back to my tent and to my storehouse but gave me room to store my goods and now I began to apply myself to such necessary things as I found I most wanted particularly a chair and a table for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world I could not write or eat with so much pleasure without a table so I went to work and here I must needs observe that as reason is the substance and origin of the mathematics so by stating and squaring everything by reason and by making the most rational judgments of things every man may be in time master of every mechanic art I had never handled a tool in my life and yet in time by labor application I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it especially if I had tools however I made abundance of things even without tools and some with no tools more than an ads and a hatchet which perhaps were never made that way before and that with infinite labor for example if I wanted a board I had no other way but to cut down a tree set it on an edge before me and cue it flat on either side with my axe till I brought it to be thin as a plank and then dub it smooth with my ads it is true by this method I could make but one board out of a whole tree but this I had no remedy for but patience any more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and labor which it took me up to make a plank or board but my time or labor was little worth and so it was as well employed one way as another however I made me a table and a chair as I observed above and in the first place and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship but when I had wrought out some boards as above I made large shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half one over another all along one side of my cave to lay all my tools nails and ironwork on and in a word to separate everything at large into their places that I might come easily at them I knocked pieces into the wall to hang my guns and all things that would hang up so that had my cave been to be seen it looked like a great general magazine of all necessary things and had everything so ready at my hand that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great and now it was that I began to keep a journal of everyday employment for indeed at first I was in too much hurry and not only hurry as to labor but in too much discomposure of mind and my journal would have been full of many dull things for example I must have said thus 30th after I had got to shore and escaped drowning instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance having first vomited with the great quantity of salt water which had gotten into my stomach and recovering myself a little I ran about the shore ringing my hands and beating my head and face exclaiming at my misery and crying out I was undone untone till tired and faint I was forced to lie down on the ground to repose but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured some days after this and after I had been on board the ship and got all I could out of her I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking out to sea in hopes of seeing a ship then fancy at a best distance I spy to sail please myself with the hopes of it and then after looking steadily till I was almost blind lose it quite and sit down and weep like a child and thus increase my misery by my folly but having gotten over these things in some measure and having settled my household, staff and habitation made me a table and a chair and all as handsome about me as I could I began to keep my journal of which I shall here give you the copy though in it will be told all the particulars all over again as long as it lasted for having no more ink I was forced to leave it off end of chapter 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 5 Builds a House The Journal September 30th 1659 I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island which I call the island of despair all the rest of the ship's company being drowned and myself almost dead all the rest of the day I spent inflicting myself at the dismal circumstances I was brought to that is I had neither food, house, clothes weapon nor place to fly to and in despair of any relief saw nothing but death before me either that I should be devoured by wild beasts murdered by savages or starved to death for want of food at the approach of night I slept in a tree for fear of wild creatures but slept soundly until it rained all night October 1st this morning I saw to my great surprise the ship had floated with the high tide and was driven on shore again much nearer the island which as it was some comfort on one hand for seeing her set up right and not broken into pieces I hoped, if the wind debated I might get on board and get some food and necessaries out of her for my relief so on the other hand it renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades who I imagine if we had stayed on board might have saved the ship or at least that they would not have been all drowned as they were and that had the men been saved we might perhaps have built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship to have carried us to some other part of the world I spent great part of this day in perplexing myself on these things but at length seeing the ship almost dry I went upon the sand as near as I could and then swam on board and it also continued raining though with no wind at all from the 1st of October to the 24th all of these days entirely spent in my several voyages to get all I could out of the ship which I brought on shore every tide of flood upon rafts much rain also in the days though with some intervals of fair weather but it seems this was the rainy season October 20th I overset my raft and all the goods I had got upon it but being in shoal water and the things being chiefly heavy I recovered many of them when the tide was out October 25th it rained all night and all day with some gusts of wind during which time the ship broke in pieces the wind blowing a little harder than before and was no more to be seen except the wreck of her and that only at low water I spent this day in covering and securing the goods which I had saved that the rain might not spoil them October 26th I walked about the shore almost all day to find out a place to fix my habitation greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack in the night either from wild beasts or men towards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock and marked out a semicircle for my encatment I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification made of double piles lined within with cables and without with turf from the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation though some part of the time it rained exceedingly hard the 31st in the morning I went out into the island with my gun to seek for some food and discover the country and her kid followed me home which I afterwards killed also because it would not feed November 1st I set up my tent under a rock and lay there for the first night making it as large as I could with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon November 2nd I set up all my chests and boards and the pieces of timber which made my rafts and with them formed a fence around me a little within the place I had marked out for my fortification November 3rd I went out with my gun and killed two fowls like ducks which were very good food and in the afternoon went to work to make me a table November 4th this morning I began to order my times of work of going out with my gun time of sleep and time of diversion that is every morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours I did not rain then employed myself to work until about 11 o'clock then eat what I had to live on and from 12 to 2 I lay down to sleep the weather being excessively hot and then in the evening to work again the working part of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making my table for I was yet but a very sorry workman though time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after as I believe November 5th this day went abroad with my gun and my dog and killed a wild cat but her flesh good for nothing every creature that I killed I took of the skins and preserved them coming back to the seashore I saw many sorts of sea fowls which I did not understand but was surprised and almost frightened with two or three seals which while I was gazing at not well knowing what they were made me for that time November 6th after my morning walk I went to work with my table again and finished it though not by my liking nor was it long before I learned to mend it November 7th now it began to be settled fair weather the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th and part of the 12th and the 11th was Sunday I took wholly up to make me a chair and with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape but never to please me and even in the making I pulled it in pieces several times note I soon neglected my keep in Sundays for omitting my mark for them on my post I forgot which was which November 13th this day it rained which refreshed me exceedingly and cooled the earth but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning which frightened me dreadfully for fear of my powder and as it was over I resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as possible that it might not be in danger November 14th, 15th and 16th these three days I spent in making little square chests or boxes which might hold about a pound or two pounds at most of powder and so putting the powder in I stowed it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible on one of these three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat but I knew not what to call it November 17th this day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock to make room for my further conveniency note three things I wanted exceedingly for this work that is a pickaxe, a shovel and a wheelbarrow or basket so I desisted from my work and began to consider how to supply that want and make me some tools as for the pickaxe I made use of the iron crows which were proper enough though heavy but the next thing was a shovel or spade this was so absolutely necessary that indeed I could do nothing effectually without it but what kind of one to make I knew not November 18th the next day in searching the woods I found a tree of that wood or like it which in the brazils they call the iron tree for its exceeding hardness of this with great labor and almost spoiling my axe I cut a piece and brought it home too with difficulty enough for it was exceedingly heavy the excessive hardness of the wood and my having no other way made me a long while upon this machine for I worked it effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or spade they handle exactly shaped like ours in England only that the board part having no iron shot upon it at the bottom it would not last me for so long however it served well enough for the uses which I had occasion to put it to but never was a shovel I believe made after that fashion or so long in making I was still deficient for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow a basket I could not make by any means having no such things as twigs that would bend to make a wheelchair at least none yet found out and as to a wheelbarrow I fancied I could make all but the wheel but that I had no notion of neither did I know how to go about it besides I had no possible way to make the iron gudgins for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in so I gave it over and so for carrying away the earth which I dug out of the cave I made me a thing like a hod the laborers carry mortar in when they serve the bricklayers this is not so difficult to me as the making of the shovel and yet this in the shovel and the attempt which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow took me up no less than four days I mean always accepting my morning walk with my gun which I seldom failed and very seldom failed also bringing home something fit to eat November 23 the other work having now stood still because of my making these tools when they were finished I went on and working every day as my strength and time allowed I spent 18 days entirely in widening and deepening my cave that it might hold my goods commodiously note during all this time I worked to make this room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine a kitchen, a dining room and a cellar as for my lodging I kept to the tent except that sometimes in the wet season of the year it rained so hard that I could not keep myself dry which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles in the form of rafters leaning against the rock and load them with flags and large leaves of trees like a thatch December 10 I began now to think my cave or vault finished on a sudden it seems I had made it too large a great quantity of earth fell down from the top on one side so much that in short it frighted me and not without reason too for if I had been under it I had never wanted a grave digger I had now a great deal of work to do over again for I had the loose earth all to carry out and which was of more importance I had the ceiling to prop up so that I might be sure no more would come down December 11 this day I went to work with it accordingly and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the top with two pieces of boards across over each post this I finished the next day and setting more posts up with boards in about a week more I had the roof secured and the posts standing in rows served me for partitions to part off the house December 17 from this day to the 20th I placed shelves and knocked up nails on the posts to hang everything up that could be hung up and now I began to be in some order with indoors December 20 now I carried everything into the cave and began to furnish my house and set up some pieces of boards like a dresser to order my victuals upon but boards began to be very scarce with me also I made me another table December 24 much rain all day and all night no stirring out December 25 rain all day December 26 no rain and the earth much cooler than before and pleasanter December 27 killed a young goat and lame another so that I caught it and let it home in a string and when I had it at home I bound and splintered up its leg which was broke note bene I took such care of it that it lived and the leg grew well and as strong as ever but by my nursing it so long it grew tame and fed upon the little green at my door and would not go away this was the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures that I might have food when my powder and shot was all spent December 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st great heats and no breeze so that there was no stirring abroad except in the evening for food this time I spent in putting all my things in order within doors January 1st very hot still but I went abroad early and late with my gun and lay still in the middle of the day this evening going farther as the winds which laid towards the center of the island I found there were plenty of goats though exceedingly shy and hard to come at however I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down January 2nd accordingly the next day I went out with my dog and set him upon the goats but I was mistaken for they all faced about upon the dog and he knew his danger too well for he would not come near them I began my fence or wall which being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody I resolved to make very thick and strong Note Bene this wall being described before I purposefully admit what was said in the journal it is sufficient to observe that I was no less time than from the 2nd of January to the 14th of April working finishing and perfecting this wall though it was no more than about 24 yards in length being a half circle from one place in the rock to another place about 8 yards from it the door of the cave being in the center behind it all this time I worked very hard the rains hindering me many days nay, sometimes weeks together but I thought I should never be perfectly secure till this wall was finished and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labor everything was done with especially the bringing of piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done when this wall was finished and the outside double fenced with the turf wall raised up close to it I perceived myself that if any people were to come on shore there they would not perceive anything like a habitation and it was very well I did so as may be observed hereafter upon a very remarkable occasion during this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when the rain permitted me and made frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my advantage particularly I found a kind of wild pigeons which build not as wood pigeons in a tree but rather as house pigeons in the holes of the rocks and taking some young ones I endeavored to bring them up tame but when they grew older they flew away which perhaps was at first for what a feeding them for I had nothing to give them however I frequently found their nests and got their young ones which were very good meat and now in the managing of my household affairs I found myself wanting in many things which I thought at first it was impossible for me to make as indeed with some of them it was for instance I could never make a cask to be hooped I had a small runlet or two as I observed before but I could not ever arrive at the capacity of making one by them though I spent many weeks about it I could never put in the heads or join the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water so I gave that also over in the next place I was at a great loss for candles so that as soon as ever it was dark which was generally by 7 o'clock I was obliged to go to bed I remembered the lump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African adventure but I had none of that now the only remedy I had was that when I killed a goat I saved the tallow with a little dish made of clay which I baked up in the sun and to which I added a wick of some okam I made me a lamp and this gave me light so not a clear steady light like a candle in the middle of all my labors it happened that rummaging my things I found a little bag which as I hinted before had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry not for this voyage but before as I suppose when the ship came from Lisbon the little remainder of corn that had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats and I saw nothing in the bag for some other use I think it was to put my powder in when I divided it for fear of the lightning or some such use I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification under the rock it was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I threw this stuff away taking no notice and not so much as remembering that I had thrown anything there when about a month after or thereabouts I saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground which I fancy might be some plant I had not seen but I was surprised and perfectly astonished when after a little longer time I saw about 10 or 12 years come out which were perfect green barley of the same kind as our European nay as our English barley it is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts on this occasion I had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all indeed I had very few notions of religion in my head nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as chance or as we likely say what please is God without so much as inquiring into the end of providence in these things or his order and governing events for the world but after I saw barley growing there in a climate I knew was not proper for corn and especially that I knew not how it came there it startled me strangely and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused his grain to grow without any help of seed sown and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place this touched my heart a little and brought tears out of my eyes and I began to bless myself because such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account and this was the more strange to me because I saw near it still all along by the side of the rock some other straggling stocks which proved to be stocks of rice in which I knew because I had seen it grow in Africa when I was ashore there I not only thought these the pure productions of providence for my support but not doubting that there was more in the place of the island where I had been before peering in every corner and under every rock to see for more of it but I could not find any had lasted occurred to my thoughts that I shook a bag of chickens meat out in that place and then the wonder began to cease and I must confess my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous for it was really the work of providence to me that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled when the rats had destroyed all the rest as if it had been dropped from heaven as also that I should throw it out in that particular place where it being in the shade of a high rock it sprang up immediately whereas if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time it had been burnt up and destroyed I carefully saved the ears of this corn you may be sure in their season which was about the end of June and laying up every corn I resolved to sew them all again hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread but it was not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat even then but sparingly as I shall say afterwards in its order for I lost all that I sewed the first season by not observing the proper time for I sewed it just before the dry season so that it never came up at all at least not as it would have done of which in its place besides this barley there were as above twenty or thirty stocks of rice which I preserved with the same care and for the same use or to the same purpose to make me bread or rather food for I found ways to cook it without baking though I did that also after some time but to return to my journal I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done and the fourteenth of April I closed it up contriving to go into it not by a door but over the wall by a ladder that there might be no sign on the outside of my invitation April 16th I finished my ladder so I went up the ladder to the top and then pulled it up after me and let it down in the inside this was a complete enclosure to me for within I had room enough and nothing could come at me from without unless it could first mount my wall the very next day after this wall was finished I had almost all my labor overthrown at once and myself killed in the inside behind my tent just at the entrance into my cave I was terribly frightened with the most dreadful surprising thing indeed for all of a sudden I found the earth crumbling down from the roof of my cave and from the edge of the hill over my head in two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner I was heartily scared but thought nothing of it of what was really the cause only thinking that the top of my cave had fallen in as some of it had done before and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my ladder and not thinking myself safe there neither I got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected might roll down upon me I had no sooner stepped to ground than I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake for the ground I stood on shook three times at about eight minutes distance with three such shocks as would have the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth and a great piece of the top of a rock which stood about half a mile for me next to the sea fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life I perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion by it and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island I was so much amazed with the thing itself having never felt the like nor I was amazed with anyone that had that I was like one dead or stupefied and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick like one that was tossed at sea but the noise of the falling of the rock awakened me as it were and rousing me from the stupefied condition I was in filled me with horror and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods and burying all at once and this sunk my very soul within me a second time after the third shot was over and I felt no more for some time I began to take courage and yet I had not hard enough to go over my wall again for fear of being buried alive but sat still upon the ground greatly cast down and disconsolate not knowing what to do all this while I had not the least serious religious thought about the common Lord have mercy upon me and when it was over that went away too while I sat thus I found the air overcast and row cloudy and as if it would ring soon after that the wind arose by little and little so that in less than half an hour it blew the most dreadful hurricane the sea was all of a sudden covered over with foam and froth the shore was covered with the breach of the water the trees were torn up by the roots and a terrible storm it was this held about three hours and then began to abate and in two hours more it was quite calm and began to rain very hard all this while I sat upon the ground very much terrified and dejected when on a sudden it came into my thoughts that these winds and rain being the consequences of the earthquake the earthquake itself was spent and over and I might venture into my cave again with this thought my spirits began to revive and the rain also helped me to persuade me I went in and sat down in my tent but the rain was so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it and I was forced to go into my cave though very much afraid and uneasy for fear it would fall on my head this violent rain forced me to a new work that is to cut a hole through my new fortification to sink to let the water go out which would else have flooded my cave after I had been in my cave for some time and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow I began to be more composed and now to support my spirits which indeed wanted it very much I went to my little store and took a small sup of rum which however I did then and always very sparingly knowing I could have no more when that was gone it continued raining all that night and great part of the day so that I could not stir abroad but my mind being more composed I began to think of what I had best do concluding that if the island was subject to these earthquakes there would be no living for me in the cave but I must consider of building a little hut in an open space which I might surround with a wall as I had done before and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men for I concluded if I stayed where I was I should certainly one time or other be buried alive with these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill and which if it should be shaken again would certainly fall upon my tent and I spent the next two days being the 19th and 20th of April in contriving where and how to remove my habitation the fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in quiet and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it but still when I looked about and saw how everything was put in order how pleasantly concealed I was and how safe from danger it made me very loathe to remove in the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this and that I must be contented to venture where I was till I had formed a camp for myself and had secured it so as to remove to it so with this resolution I composed myself for a time and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables etc. in a circle as before and set my tent up in it when it was finished but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished and fit to remove this was the 21st April 22nd the next morning I began to consider a means to put this resolve into execution but I was at a great loss about my tools I had three large axes and abundance of hatchets for we carry the hatchets for traffic with the Indians but with much chopping and cutting knotty hardwood they were all full of notches and dull and though I had a grindstone I could not turn it and grind my tools too this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics or a judge upon the life and death of a man at length I contrived a wheel with the string to turn it with my foot then I might have both my hands at liberty note I had never seen any such thing in England or at least not to take notice how it was done though since I have observed it is very common there besides that my grindstone was very heavy and large this machine cost me a full weeks work to bring it to perfection April 28th and 29th these two whole days I took up in grinding my tools my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well having perceived my bread had been low a great while now I took a survey of it and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a day which made my heart very heavy May 1st in the morning looking towards the seaside the tide being low I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary and it looked like a cask when I came to it I found a small barrel and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship which were driven on shore by the late hurricane and looking towards the wreck itself I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to I examined the barrel which was driven on shore and soon found that it was a barrel of gunpowder but it had taken water and the powder was caked as hard as a stone however I rolled it farther on shore for the present and went on upon the sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship to look for more End of Chapter 5 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California Winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 6 Ill and Conscience Stricken When I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed the forecastle which lay before buried in sand was heaved up at least 6 feet and the stern which was broken pieces and parted from the rest by the force of the sea soon after I had left rummaging her was tossed up as it were and cast on one side and the sand was thrown so high on that side next to her stern that whereas there was a great place of water before so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out I was surprised with this at first but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake and by this violence the ship was more broke open than formerly so many things came daily on shore which the sea had loosened and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land this wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation and I busied myself mightily, that day especially in searching whether I could make any way into the ship but I found nothing must be expected of that kind for all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand however as I had learned not to despair of anything I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the ship concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some use or other to me May 3rd I began with my saw and cut a piece of a beam through which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together and when I had cut it through I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest but the tide was coming in I was obliged to give over for that May 4th I went fishing but caught not only one fish that I durst eat till I was weary of my sport when just going to leave off I caught a young dolphin I had made me a long line of some rope yarn but I had no hooks yet I frequently caught fish enough as much as I cared to eat all which I dried in the sun and ate them dried May 5th worked on the wreck cut another beam asunder and brought three great fur planks off from the decks which I tied together and made to float on shore when the tide of flood came in May 6th worked on the wreck got several iron bolts out of her and other pieces of iron work worked very hard and came home very much tired and had thoughts of giving it over May 7th went to the wreck again not with an intent to work but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down the beams being cut that several pieces of ship seemed to lie loose and the inside of the hold lay so open that I could see into it but it was almost full of water and sand May 8th went to the wreck and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck which lay now quite clear of the water or sand I wrenched open two planks and brought them on shore also with the tide I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day May 9th went to the wreck and with the crow made way into the body of the wreck and felt several casts of them with the crow but could not break them up I felt also a roll of English lead and could stir it but it was too heavy to remove May 10th through 14th went every day to the wreck and got a great many pieces of timber and boards or plank and two or three hundred weight of iron May 15th I carried two hatchets to try if I could not cut the roll of lead by placing the edge of one hatchet and driving it with the other but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water I could not make any blow to drive the hatchet May 16th it had blown hard in the night and the wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water but I stayed so long in the woods to get pigeons for food that the tide prevented my going to the wreck that day May 17th I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore at a great distance near two miles off me but resolved to see what they were and found it was a piece of the head but too heavy for me to bring away May 24th every day to this day I worked on the wreck and with the hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow that the first tide several casts floated out two of the seamen's chests but the wind blowing from the shore nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber in the hog's head which had some brazil pork in it but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it I continued this work every day to the 15th of June except the time necessary to get food which I always appointed during this part of my employment to be when the tide was up and I might be ready when it was amped out and by this time I had got timber and plank and ironwork enough to have built a good boat if I had known how and also I got at several times and in several pieces near 100 weight of the sheet lead June 16th going down to the seaside I found a large tortoise or turtle this was the first I had seen which it seems was only my misfortune not any defect of the place or scarcity for had I happened to be on the other side of the island I might have had hundreds of them every day as I found afterwards but perhaps had paid dear enough for them June 17th I spent in cooking the turtle I found in her three score eggs and her flesh was to me at that time the most savory pleasant that ever I tasted in my life having had no flesh but of goats and fowls since I landed in this horrid place June 18th rained all day and I stayed within I thought at this time the rain felt cold and I was something chilly which I knew was not unusual in that latitude June 19th very ill as if the weather had been cold June 20th no rest all night violent pains in my head and feverish June 21st very ill Frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition to be sick and no help prayed to God for the first time since the storm but scarce knew what I said or why my thoughts being all confused June 22nd a little better but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness chilled a she-goat and with much difficulty got it home and broiled some of it in eight I would feign have stewed it and made some broth but had no pot June 27th the Agu again so violent that I lay a bed all day and neither ate nor drank I was ready to perish for thirst but so weak I had not strength to stand up or to get myself any water to drink prayed to God again but was lightheaded and when I was not I was so ignorant that I knew not what to say only I lay and cried look upon me Lord pity me Lord have mercy upon me I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours till the fit wearing off I fell asleep and did not wake till far in the night when I awoke I found myself much refreshed but weak and exceeding thirsty however as I had no water in my habitation I was forced to lie till morning and went to sleep again in this second sleep I had this terrible dream I thought that I was sitting on the ground on the outside of my wall where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake and that I saw a man descend from a great black cloud in a bright flame of fire and light upon the ground he was all over as bright as a flame so that I could not but just bear to look towards him his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful impossible for words to describe when he stepped upon the ground with his feet I thought the earth trembled just as it had done before in the earthquake and all the air looked to my apprehension as if it had been filled he was no sooner landed upon the earth but he had moved forward towards me with a long spear or weapon in his hand to kill me and when he came to a rising ground at some distance he spoke to me or I heard a voice so terrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it all that I can say was this seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance now thou shalt die at which words I thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me no one that shall ever read in this account will expect that I should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision that even while it was a dream I even dreamed of those horrors nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my mind when I awaked and found it was but a dream I had alas no divine knowledge what I had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series of seafaring wickedness and a constant conversation with none but such as were like myself wicked and profane to the last degree I do not remember that I had in all that time one thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways but a certain stupidity of soul without desire of good or conscience of evil had entirely overwhelmed me and I was all that the most hardened unthinking wicked creature among our common sailors can be supposed to be not having the least sense either of the fear of God in danger or of thankfulness to God in deliverance in the relating of what already has passed of my story this will be the more easily believed when I shall add that through all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me I never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of God or that it was a just punishment for my sin my rebellious behavior against my father or my present sins which were great or so much as a punishment for the general course of my wicked life when I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa I never had so much as one thought of what would become of me or one wish to God to direct me wither I should go or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me as well as from voracious creatures as cruel savages but I was merely thoughtless of a God or a Providence like a mere brute from the principles of nature and by the dictates of common sense only and indeed hardly that when I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain well used and dealt justly and honorably with as well as charitably I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts when again I was shipwrecked ruined and in danger of drowning on the island I was as far from remorse or looking on it as a judgment I only said to myself often that I was an unfortunate dog and born to always be miserable it is true when I got on shore first here and found all my ships crew drowned and myself spared I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy and some transports of soul God assisted might have come up to true thankfulness but it ended where it began in a mere common flight of joy or as I may say being glad I was alive without the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the hand which had preserved me and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed or an inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful unto me even just the same common sort of joy which semen generally have after they got safe ashore from a shipwreck which they drown all in the next bowl of punch and forget almost as soon as it is over and all the rest of my life was like it even when I was afterwards on due consideration made sensible of my condition how I was cast on this dreadful place out of the reach of humankind all hope of relief or prospect of redemption as soon as I saw but a prospect of living and that I should not starve and perish for hunger all the sense of my affliction wore off and I began to be very easy applied myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply and was far enough from being afflicted at my condition as a judgment from heaven or as the hand of God against me and the thoughts which very seldom entered my head the growing up of the corn as is hinted in my journal had at first some little influence upon me and began to affect me with seriousness as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it but as soon as ever that part of the thought was removed all the impression that was raised from it wore off also as I have noted already even the earthquake though nothing could be more terrible in its nature or more immediately directing to the invisible power which alone directs such things yet no sooner was the first fright over but the impression it had made went off also I had no more sense of God or his judgments much less of the present affliction of my circumstances being from his hand then if I had been in the most prosperous condition of life but now when I began to be sick and allegedly view of the miseries of death came to place itself before me when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever conscience that had slept so long began to awake and I began to reproach myself with my past life in which I had so evidently common wickedness provoke the justice of God to lay me under uncommon strokes and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner these reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of my distemper and in the violence as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience extorted some words for me like praying to God though I cannot say my prayer attended with desires or with hopes it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress my thoughts were confused the convictions great upon my mind and the horror of dying in such a miserable condition raised vapors into my head with the mere apprehensions and in these hurries of my soul I knew not what my tongue might express but it was rather exclamation Lord what a miserable creature am I if I should be sick I shall certainly die for want of help and what will become of me then the tears burst out of my eyes and I could say no more for a good while in this interval the good advice of my father came to my mind and presently his prediction which I mentioned at the beginning of the story that is that if I did take this foolish step God would not bless me and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery now said I aloud my dear father's words are come to pass God's justice has overtaken me and I have none to help or hear me I rejected the voice of providence which had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein I might have been happy and easy but I would neither see it myself nor learn to know the blessing of it from my parents I left them to mourn over my folly and now I am left to mourn under the consequences of it I abused their help and assistance which would have lifted me in the world and would have made everything easy to me and now I have difficulties to struggle with too great for even nature itself to support and no assistance, no help no comfort, no advice then I cried out Lord be my help for I am in great distress this was the first prayer if I may call it so that I had made for many years to return to my journal June 28th having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had and the fit being entirely off I got up right in terror of my dream was very great yet I considered that the fit of the Agu would return again the next day and now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself when I should be ill and the first thing I did I filled a large square case bottle with water and set it upon my table in reach of my bed and to take off to chill or egg-wish disposition of the water I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it and mixed them together then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh and broiled it on the coals but could eat very little I walked about but was very weak and with all very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable condition dreading the return of my distemper of the next day at night I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs which I roasted in the ashes which I call it in the shell and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing to that I could remember in my whole life after I had eaten I tried to walk but found myself so weak that I could hardly carry a gun for I never went out without that so I went but a little way and sat down upon the ground looking out upon the sea which was just before me and very calm and smooth as I sat here some such thoughts as these occurred to me what is this earth and sea of which I have seen so much whence is it produced and what am I and all the other creatures wild and tame human and brutal whence are we sure we all are made by some secret power who formed the earth and sea and the air and sky who is that then it followed most naturally it is God that has made all well but then it came on strangely if God has made all these things he guides and governs them all and all things that concern them for the power that could make all things must certainly have power to guide and direct them if so nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works either without his knowledge or appointment and if nothing happens without his knowledge he knows that I am here and in this dreadful condition and if nothing happens without his appointment he has appointed all this to befall me nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of these conclusions and therefore it rested upon me with the greater force that it must needs be that God had appointed all this to befall me that I was brought into this miserable circumstance by his direction he having the soul power not of me only but of everything that happened in the world immediately it followed why has God done this to me what have I done to be thus used my conscience presently checked me in that inquiry as if I had blasphemed and we thought it spoke to me like a voice wretch does thou ask what thou has done look back upon a dreadful mis-spent life and ask thyself what thou has not done ask why is it that thou were not long ago destroyed why were it thou not drowned in yarmouth roads killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the sailing man of war devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa or drowned here when all the crew perished but thyself what have I done I was struck dumb with these reflections as one astonished and had not a word to say no not to answer to myself but rose up pensive and sad walk back to my retreat and went up over my wall as if I had been going to bed but my thoughts were sadly disturbed and I had no inclination to sleep so I sat down in my chair and lighted my lamp for it began to be dark now as the apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no physique but their tobacco for almost all distempers and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests which was quite cured and some also that was green and not quite cured I went directed by heaven and took it out for in this chest I found a cure both for soul and body I opened the chest and found what I looked for the tobacco and as the few books I had saved lay there too I took out one of the Bibles which I mentioned before and which to this time I had not found leisure or inclination to look into I say I took it out and brought both that tobacco with me to the table what used to make of the tobacco I knew not in my distemper or whether it was good for it or no but I tried several experiments with it as if I was resolved it should hit one way or another I took first a piece of leaf and chewed it in my mouth which indeed at first almost stupefied my brain the tobacco being green and strong and that I had not been much used to then I took some and steeped it an hour or two in some run and resolved to make a dose of it when I lay down and lastly I burnt some upon a pan of coals and held my nose over it over the smoke of it as long as I could bear it as well for the heat as almost for suffocation in the interval of this operation I took up the Bible and began to read but my head was too much disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading at least at that time only having opened the book casually the first words that occurred to me were these call on me and the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me these words were very apt to my case and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them though not so much as they did afterwards for as for being delivered the word had no sound as I may say to me the thing was so remote so impossible in my apprehension of things that I began to say as the children of Israel did when they were promised flesh to eat can God spread a table in the wilderness so I began to say can God himself deliver me from this place and as it was not for many years any hopes appeared this prevailed very often upon my thoughts but however the words made a great impression upon me and I mused upon them very often it grew now late and the tobacco had as I said dozed my head so much that I inclined to sleep so I left my lamp burning in the cave lest I should want anything in the night and went to bed but before I lay down I did what I never had done in all my life I kneeled down and prayed to God to fulfill the promise to me that if I called upon him in the day of trouble he would deliver me after my broken and imperfect prayer was over I drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco which was so strong and rank of the tobacco that I could scarcely get it down immediately upon this I went to bed I found presently it flew up into my head violently but I fell into a sound sleep and wait no more till by the sun it must necessarily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next day nay to this hour I am partly of opinion that I slept all the next day and night till almost three days after for otherwise I know not how I should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week as it appeared some years after I had done for if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing the line I should have lost more than one day but certainly I lost a day in my account and never knew why be that however one way or the other when I awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed in my spirits lively and cheerful when I got up I was stronger than I was the day before but in my stomach better for I was hungry and in short I had no fit the next day but continued much altered for the better this was the 29th the 30th was my well day of course and I went abroad with my gun but did not care to travel too far I killed a seafowl or two something like a brand goose and brought them home but was not very forward so I ate some more of the turtles eggs which were very good this evening I renewed the medicine which I had supposed did me good the day before the tobacco steeped and rum only I did not take so much as before nor did I chew any of the leaf or hold my head over the smoke however I was not so well the next day which was the first of July as I hoped it should have been for I had a little spice of the cold fit but it was not much July 2nd I renewed the medicine all the three ways and dosed myself with it as at first and doubled the quantity which I drank July 3rd I missed the fit for good and all though I did not recover my full strength for some weeks after while I was thus gathering my strength my thoughts ran exceedingly upon the scripture I will deliver thee the reliability of my deliverance lay much upon my mind in bar of my ever expecting it but as I was discouraging myself with such thoughts it occurred to me that I poured so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction that I disregarded the deliverance I had received and I was as it were made to ask myself such questions as these that is have I not been delivered and wonderfully too from sickness from the most distress condition that could be and that was so frightful to me and what notice had I taken of it had I done my part God had delivered me but I had not glorified him that is to say I had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance and how could I expect greater deliverance this touched my heart very much and immediately I knelt down and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery from my sickness July 4 in the morning I took the Bible and beginning at the New Testament I began seriously to read it and imposed upon myself to read awhile every morning and every night not tying myself to the number of chapters but long as my thoughts should engage me it was not long after I set seriously to this work that I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life the impression of my dream revived in the words all these things have not brought thee to repentance ran seriously through my thoughts I was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance and providentially the very next day that reading the scripture I came to these words he is exalted a prince and a savior to give repentance and to give remission I threw down the book and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven in a kind of ecstasy of joy I cried out aloud Jesus, thou son of David Jesus, thou exalted prince and savior give me repentance this was the first time I could say in the true sense of the words that I prayed in all my life for now I prayed with a sense of my condition and a true scripture view of hope founded on the encouragement of the word of God and from this time I may say I began to hope that God would hear me now I began to construe the words mentioned above call on me and I will deliver thee in a different sense from what I had ever done before for then I had no notion of anything being called deliverance but my being delivered from the captivity I was in for though I was indeed at large in the place yet the island was certainly a prison to me and that in the worst sense of the world but now I learned to take it in another sense now I look back upon my past life with such horror and my sins appeared so dreadful that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort as for my solitary life it was nothing I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it it was all of no consideration in comparison to this and I add this part here to hint to whoever shall read it that whenever they come to a true sense of things they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction but leaving this part I return to my journal my condition began now to be though not less miserable as to my way of living yet much easier to my mind and my thoughts being directed by a constant reading the scripture and praying to God to things of a higher nature I had a great deal of comfort within which till now I knew nothing of also my health and strength returned I bestowed myself to furnish myself with everything that I wanted and make my way of living as regular as I could from the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed talking about with my gun in my hand a little and a little at a time as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness for it is hardly to be imagined how low I was and to what weakness I was reduced the application which I made use of was perfectly new and perhaps which had never cured an Agu before neither can I recommend it to any to practice by this experiment and though it did carry off the fit yet it rather contributed to weakening me for I had frequent convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time I learned from it also this in particular that being abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health that could be especially in those rains which came attended with storms and hurricanes of wind for as the rain which came in the dry season was almost always accompanied with such storms so I found that that rain was much more dangerous than the rain which fell in September and October end of chapter 6 Chapter 7 Agricultural Experience I had now been in this unhappy island above ten months all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me and I firmly believe that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place having now secured my habitation as I thought fully to my mind I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island and to see what other productions I might find which I yet knew nothing of it was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular survey of the island itself I went up the creek first where as I hinted I brought my rafts on shore I found after I came about two miles up that the tide did not flow any higher and that it was no more than a little brook of running water very fresh and good but this being the dry season there was hardly any water in some parts of it at least not enough to run in any stream so as it could be perceived on the banks of this brook I found many pleasant savannas or meadows plain smooth and covered with grass rising parts of them next to the higher grounds where the water as might be supposed never overflowed I found a great deal of tobacco green and growing to a great and very strong stock there were diverse other plants which I had no notion of or understanding about that might perhaps have virtues of their own which I could not find out I searched for the cassava root which the Indians all that climate make their bread of but I could find none I saw large plants of aloes but did not understand them I saw several sugar canes but wild and for want of cultivation imperfect I contented myself with these discoveries for this time and came back musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover but to no conclusion for in short I had made so little observation while I was in the Brazils that I knew little of the plants in the field at least very little that might serve to any purpose now in my distress the next day the 16th I went up the same way again and after going somewhat further than I had gone the day before I found the brook and the savannas cease and the country become more woody than before in this part I found different fruits and particularly I found melons upon the ground and great abundance and grapes upon the trees the vines had spread indeed over the trees and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime very ripe and rich this was a surprising discovery and I was exceeding glad of them but I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them remembering that when I was sure in Barbary the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen who were slaves there by throwing them into fluxes and fevers but I found an excellent use for these grapes and that was to cure or dry them in the sun and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept which I thought would be as indeed they were wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had that evening there and went back to my habitation which by the way was the first night as I might say I had lain from home in the night I took my first contrivance and got up in a tree where I slept well and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery traveling nearly four miles as I might judge by the length of the valley keeping still due north with a ridge of hills on the south and north side of me at the end of this march I came to an opening where the country seemed to descend to the west and the little spring of fresh water which issued out of the side of the hill by me ran the other way that is due east and the country appeared so fresh so green so flourishing everything being in a constant verger or flourish of spring that it looked like a planted garden I descended a little on the side of that delicious bale surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts to think that this was all my own that I was king and lord of all this country indefensibly and had a right of possession and if I could convey it I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in England I saw here abundance of cocoa trees orange and lemon and citron trees but all wild and very few bearing any fruit at least not then however the green lines that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat but very wholesome and I mixed their juice afterwards with water and made it very wholesome and very cool and refreshing I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home and I resolved to lay up a store as well of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for the wet season which I knew was approaching in order to do this I gathered a great heap of grapes in one place a lesser heap in another place and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place and taking a few of each with me I traveled home words resolving to come again and bring a bag or sack or what I could make to carry the rest home accordingly having spent three days on this journey I came home so I must now call my tent and my cave my home but before I got thither the grapes were spoiled the richness of the fruit and the weight of the juice having broken them and bruised them they were good for little or nothing as to the limes they were good but I could bring but a few the next day being the 19th I went back having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest but I was surprised when coming to my heap of grapes which were so rich and fine to find them all spread about trod to pieces and dragged about some here some there and abundance eaten and devoured by this I concluded there were some wild creatures there which had done this but what they were I knew not however as I found there was no laying them up on heaps and no carrying them away in a sack but that one way they would be destroyed and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight I took another course for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes and hung them trees that they might cure and dry in the sun and as for the limes and lemons I carried as many back as I could well stand under when I came home from this journey I contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley and the pleasantness of the situation the security from storms on that side of the water and the wood and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode which was by far the worst part of the country upon the whole I began to consider of removing my habitation and looking out for a place equally safe as where now I was situate if possible in that pleasant fruitful part of the island this thought ran long in my head and I was exceedingly fond of it for some time the pleasantness of the place tempting me but when I came to a nearer view of it I considered that I was now by the seaside where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage and by the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place and though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods and the center of the island was to anticipate my bondage and to render such an affair not only improbable but impossible and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove however I was so enamored of this place that I spent much of my time there for the whole of the remaining part of the month of July and though upon second thoughts I resolved not to move yet I built me a little kind of a bower and surrounded it at a distance with strong fence being a double hedge as high as I could reach well staked and filled between with brushwood and here I lay very secure sometimes two or three nights together always going over it with a ladder so that I fancy now I had my country house and my sea coast house and this work took me up to the beginning of August I had but newly finished my fence and begun to enjoy my labor when the rains came on and made me stick close to my first habitation for though I had made me a tent like the other and spread it very well yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary about the beginning of August as I said I had finished my bower and began to enjoy myself the third of August I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried and indeed were excellent good raisins of the sun so I began to take them down from the trees and it was very happy I did so for the rains which followed would have spoiled them and I had lost the best part of my winter food for I had above 200 large bunches of them no sooner had I taken them down and carried the most of them home to my cave and then it began to rain and from hence which was the 14th of August it rained more or less every day till the middle of October and sometimes so violently that I could not stir out of my cave for several days in this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats who ran away from me or as I thought had been dead and I heard no more tidings of her till to my astonishment she came home about the end of August with three kittens this was the more strange to me because though I had killed a wild cat as I called it with my gun yet I thought it was quite a different kind but the young cats were the same kind of house breed as the old one and both my cats being females I thought it very strange but from these three cats I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts and to drive them from my house as much as possible from the 14th of August to the 26th incessant rain so that I could not stir and was now very thankful not to be much wet in this confinement I began to be straightened for food but venturing out twice I one day killed a goat and the last day which was the 26th found a very large tortoise which was a treat to me and my food was regulated thus I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast a piece of the goat's flesh or of the turtle for my dinner broiled for to my great misfortune I had no vessel to boil or stew anything and two or three of the turtles eggs for my supper during this confinement in my cover by the rain I worked a daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave and by degrees worked it on towards one side till I came to the outside of the hill and made a door or way out which came beyond my fence or wall and so I came in and out this way but I was not perfectly easy at lying so open to myself before I was in a perfect enclosure whereas now I thought I lay exposed and open for anything to come in upon me and yet I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat September 30th I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing I cast up the notches on my post and found I had been on shore for 365 days I kept this day as a solemn fast setting it apart for religious exercise prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious humiliation confessing my sins to God acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me and praying to him to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ and not having tasted the least refreshment for 12 hours even till the going down of the sun I then ate a biscuit cake and a bunch of grapes and went to bed finishing the day as I began it I had all this time observed no Sabbath day for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind I had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks by making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day and so did not really know what any of the days were but now having cast up the days as above I found I had been there so I divided it into weeks and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning a little after this my ink began to fail me and so I contented myself to use it more sparingly and to write down only the most memorable events of my life without continuing a daily memorandum of other things the rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me and I learned to divide them to provide for them accordingly but I bought all my experience before I had it and this I am going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made I had mentioned that I had saved the few years of barley and rice which I had so surprisingly found spring up as I thought of themselves and I believe there were about 30 stocks of rice about 12 of barley and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains the sun being in its sudden position going from me accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade and dividing it into two parts I sowed my grain but as I was sowing it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first because I did not know what was the proper time for it so I started sowing the seed and leaving about a handful of each it was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so for not one grain of what I sowed this time came to anything for the dry months following the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown it had little moisture to assist its growth and never came up at all till the wet season had come again and then it grew as much as if it had been but newly sown the first seed did not grow which I easily imagined was by the drought I sought out for a moisture piece of ground to make another trowel and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower and sowed the rest of my seed in February a little before the burnal equinox and this having the rainy months of March and April to water it sprung up very pleasantly and yielded a very good crop and having part of the seed left only and not daring to sow that I had I had but a small quantity at last my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind but by this experiment I was made master of my business and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow and that I might expect two seed times and two harvests every year while this corn was growing I made a little discovery which was of use to me afterwards as soon as the rains were over and the weather began to settle which was about the month of November I made a visit up to country to my bower where though I had not been some months yet I found all things just as I left them the circle or double edge that I had made was not only firm and entire but the steaks which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches as much as a willow tree which usually shoots the first year after lopping its head I could not tell what tree to call it that these steaks were cut from I was surprised and yet well pleased to see the young trees grow and I pruned them and led them up to grow as much alike as I could and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years so that though the hedge made a circle of about 25 yards in diameter yet the trees for such as I might now call them soon covered it and it was a complete shade sufficient to lodge under all the dry season this made me resolve to cut some more steaks and make me a hedge like this in a semi circle around my wall I mean that of my first dwelling which I did and placing the trees or steaks in a double row at about 8 yards distance from my first fence they grew presently and were at first a fine cover to my habitation and afterwards served for a defense also as I shall observe in its order I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided not into summer and winter as in Europe but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons which were generally thus the half of February the whole of March and the half of April rainy the sun being then on or near the equinox the half of April the whole of May June and July and the half of August dry the sun being then to the north of the line the half of August the whole of September and the half of October rainy the sun being then come back the half of October the whole of November December and January and the half of February dry the sun being then to the south of the line the rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds happened to blow but this was the general observation I made after I had found by experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand that I might not be obliged to go out and I sat with indoors as much as possible during the wet months this time I found much employment and very suitable also to the time for I found great occasion for many things which I had no way to furnish myself with but by hard labor and constant application particularly I tried many ways to make myself a basket but all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing it proved of excellent advantage to me now that when I was a boy I used to take great delight in standing at a basket makers in the town where my father lived to see them make their wickerware and being as boys usually are very officious to help and a great observer of the manner in which they work these things and sometimes lending the hand I had by these means full knowledge of the methods of it and I wanted nothing but the materials when it came into my mind that the twigs of that tree from once I cut my steaks that grew might possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows and ossears in England and I resolved to try accordingly the next day I went to my country house as I called it and cutting down some of the smaller twigs I found them to my purpose as much as I could desire whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity which I soon found for there was a great plenty of them these I set up to dry within my circle or hedge and when they were fit I carried them to my cave and here during the next season I employed myself in making as well as I could a great many baskets both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything as I had occasion and though I did not finish them very handsomely yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose thus afterwards I took care never to be without them and as my wickerware decayed I made more especially strong deep baskets to place my corn in instead of sacks when I should come to have any quantity of it having mastered this difficulty and employed a world of time about it I besturred myself to see if possible how to supply two once I had no vessels to hold anything that was liquid except two runlets which were almost full of rum and some glass bottles some of the common size and others which were case bottles square for the holding of water, spirits, etc I had not so much as a pot to boil anything except a great kettle which I saved out of the ship and which was too big for such as I desired it that is to make broth and stew a bit of meat by itself the second thing I feigned would have had was a tobacco pipe but it was impossible to make me one however I found a contrivance for that too at last I employed myself in planting my second rows of steaks or piles and in this wicker working all the summer or dry season when another business took me up more time than it could be imagined I could spare End of Chapter 7 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California Winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 8 Surveys his position I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see all the island and that I had traveled up the brook and so on to where I built my bower and where I had an opening quite to the sea on the other side of the island I now resolved to travel quite across to the seashore on that side so taking my gun a hatchet and my dog and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual with two biscuit cakes and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store I began my journey When I had passed the veil and understood as above I came within view of the sea to the west and had been a very clear day I fairly described land whether an island or a continent I could not tell but it lay very high extending from the west to the west south west at a very great distance by my guess it could not be less than 15 or 20 leagues off I could not tell what part this might be otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America and as I concluded by all my observations must be near the Spanish dominions and perhaps was all inhabited by savages where if I had landed I had been in a worse condition than I was now therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions of Providence which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything for the best I say therefore I quieted my mind with this and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there besides after some thought upon this affair I considered that if this land was the Spanish coast I should certainly one time or other see some vessel pass or repass one way or other but if not then it was the savage coast between the Spanish country and the Zills where are found the worst of savages for they are cannibals or men eaters and fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands with these considerations I walked very leisurely forward I found that side of the island where I now was was much pleasanter than mine the open savanna or fields were sweet adorned with flowers and grass and full of very fine woods I saw abundance of parrots and feign I would have caught one if possible to have kept it to be tame and taught it to speak to me I did after some painstaking catch a young parrot for I knocked it down with a stick and having recovered it I brought it home but it was some years before I could make him speak however at last I taught him very familiarly but the accident that followed though it be a trifle will be very diverting in its place I was exceedingly diverted with this journey I found in the low grounds hairs as I thought them to be and foxes but they differed greatly from all the other kinds that I had met nor could I satisfy myself to eat them though I killed several but I had no need to be generous for I had no want of food and of that which was very good too especially these three sorts that is goats, pigeons and turtle or tortoise which added to my grapes lead and haul market could not have furnished a table better than I in proportion to the company and though my case was deplorable enough yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven by food but had rather plenty even to dainties I never traveled in this journey above two miles outright in a day or thereabouts but I took so many turns and returns to see what discoveries I could make that I came weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit down all night and then I either reposed myself in a tree or surrounded myself with the robe sticks set up right in the ground and either from one tree to another or so as no wild creature could come at me without waiting me as soon as I came to the seashore I was surprised to see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island for here indeed the shore was covered with innumerable turtles whereas on the other side I had found but three in a year and a half here were also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds of which I had seen and some which I had not seen before and many of them very good meat but such as I knew not the names of except those called penguins I could have shot as many as I pleased but was very sparing of my powder and shot and therefore had more mind to kill a she goat if I could which I could better feed on and though there were many goats here more than on my side of the island yet it was with much more difficulty that I could come near them the country being flat and even and they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine but yet I had not the least inclination to remove for as I was fixed in my habitation it became natural to me and I seemed all the while I was here to be as were upon a journey and from home however I traveled along the shore of the sea towards the east I suppose about 12 miles and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark I concluded I would go home again and that the next journey I took should be on the other side of the island east from my dwelling and so around till I came to my post again I took another way to come back then that I went thinking I could easily keep all the island much in my view that I could not misfinding my first dwelling by viewing the country but I found myself to be mistaken for being come about 2 or 3 miles I found myself descended into a very large valley but so surrounded with hills and those hills covered with wood that I could not see which was my way by any direction but that of the sun nor even then unless I knew very well the position of the sun at that time it happened to my further misfortune that the weather proved hazy for 3 or 4 days while I was in the valley and not able to see the sun I wondered about very uncomfortably and at last was obliged to find the sea side looking for my post and come back the same way I went and then by easy journeys I turned homeward the weather being exceeding hot and my gun ammunition hatchet and other things very heavy in this journey my dog surprised a young kid and seized upon it and I running in to take hold of it caught it and saved it alive from the dog I had a great mind to bring it home if I could for I had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or 2 and so raise a breed of tame goats which might supply me when my powder and shot should be all spent I made a collar for this little creature and with a string which I made of some rope yam which I always carried about me I led him along there was some difficulty till I came to my bower and there I enclosed him and left him for I was very impatient to be at home from whence I had been absent above a month I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch and lie down in my hammock bed this little wandering journey without settled place of the boat had been so unpleasant to me that my own house that I called it to myself was a perfect settlement to me compared to that and it rendered everything about me so comfortable that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the island I reposed myself here a week to rest and regale myself after my long journey during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my paw who began now to be a mere domestic and to be well acquainted with me then I began to think of the poor kid which I had pinned in within my little circle and resolved to go and fetch at home or give it some food accordingly I went and found it where I had left it for indeed it could not get out but was almost starved for one of food I went and cut boughs of trees and branches of some shrubs as I could find and threw it over and having fed it I tied it as I did before to lead it away but it was so tame with being hungry that I had no need to have tied it for it followed me like a dog and as I continually fed it the creature became so loving so gentle and so fond that it became from that time one of my domestics also and would never leave me afterwards the rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come and I kept the 30th of September in a solemn manner as before being the anniversary of my landing on the island having now been there two years and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than I should have been in the liberty of society and in all the pleasures of the world that he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state and the want of human society by his presence and the communications of his grace to my soul supporting comforting and encouraging me to depend upon his provenance here and hope for his eternal presence hereafter it was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was with all its miserable circumstances then the wicked, cursed and abominable life I had led the past part of my days and now I changed both my sorrows and my joys my very desires altered my affections changed their gusts and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming or indeed for the two years past before as I walked about either on my hunting or for viewing the country the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on a sudden and my very heart would die within me to think of the woods the mountains the deserts I was in and how I was a prisoner locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean in an uninhabited wilderness without redemption in the midst of the greatest composure of mind this would break out upon me like a storm and make me ring my hands and weep like a child sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work and I would immediately sit down and sigh and look upon the ground for an hour or two together this was still worse to me for if I could burst out into tears or vent myself by words it would go off and the grief having exhausted itself would abate but now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts I daily read the Word of God and applied all the comforts of it to my present state one morning being very sad I opened the Bible upon these words I will never never believe thee nor forsake thee immediately it occurred that these words were to me why else should they be directed in such a manner just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition as one forsaken of God and man well then said I if God does not forsake me of what ills consequence can it be or what matters it though the world should all forsake me on the other hand if I had all the world and should lose the favor and blessing of God there would be no comparison in the loss from this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken solitary condition than it was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the world and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place I know not what it was but something shocked my mind at that thought and I durst not speak the words how can't thou become such a hypocrite said I even audibly to pretend to be thankful for a condition which however thou mayest endeavor to be contented with thou wouldst rather pray hardly to be delivered from so I stopped there but though I could not say I thanked God for being there yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes by whatever afflicting providences to see the former condition of my life and to mourn for my wickedness and repent I never opened the Bible or shut it but my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend without any order of mine to pack it up among my goods and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship thus and in this disposition of mind I began my third year and though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my works this year as the first yet in general it may be observed that I was very seldom idle but having regularly divided my time according to the several daily employments that were before me such as first my duty to God and the reading the scriptures which I constantly set apart some time for thrice every day secondly the going abroad with my gun for food which generally took me up 3 hours and every morning when it did not rain thirdly the ordering cutting preserving and cooking what I had killed or caught for my supply was part of the day also it is to be considered that in the middle of the day when the sun was in the zenith the violence of the heat was too great to stir out so that about 4 hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in with this exception that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and working and went to work in the morning and abroad with my gun in the afternoon to this short time maybe added the exceeding laboriousness of my work the many hours which for one of tools one of help and one of skill everything I did took up out of my time for example I was full 2 and 40 days in making a board for a long shelf which I wanted in my cave whereas 2 soyers with their tools and a saw pit would have cut 6 of them out of the same tree in half a day my case was this it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down because my board was to be a broad one this tree I was 3 days in cutting down and 2 more cutting off the bows and reducing it to a log or piece of timber with inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light enough to move then I turned it side of it smooth and flat as a board from end to end then turning that side downward cut the other side till I brought the plank to be about 3 inches thick and smooth on both sides anyone may judge the labor of my hands in such a piece of work but labor and patience carried me through that and many other things I can only observe this in particular to show the reason why so much of my time went away with so little work that is that what might be a little to be done with help and tools was a vast labor and required a prodigious time to do alone and by hand but notwithstanding this with patience and labor I got through everything that my circumstances made necessary to me to do as will appear by what follows I was now in the months of November and December expecting my crop of barley and rice and I had manured and dug up for them was not great for as I observed my seed was of each not above the quantity of half a pick and for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season but now my crop promised very well when on a sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts which it was scarcely possible to keep from it as first the goats and wild creatures which I called hairs who tasting the sweetness of the blade lay in it night and day as soon as it came up and ate it so close that it could get no time to shoot up into stock this I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with the hedge which I did with a great deal of toil however as my arable land was but small suited to my crop I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks time and shooting some of the creatures in the daytime I set my dog to guard it in the night tying him up to a stake at the gate where he would stand and bark all night long so in a little time the enemies and the corn grew well and strong and began to ripen a pace but as the beasts ruined me before while my corn was in the blade so the birds were as likely to ruin me now when it was in the ear for going along by the place to see how it throw I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls of I know not how many sorts who stood as it were watching till I should be gone I immediately let fly among them for I always had my gun with me I had no sooner shot but there rose up a little cloud of fowls which I had not seen at all from among the corn itself this touched me sensibly for I foresaw that in a very few days they would devour all my hopes that I should be starved and never be able to raise a crop at all and what to do I could not tell however I resolved not to lose my corn if possible though I should watch it night and day in the first place I went among it to see what damage was already done and found they had spoiled a good deal of it but that as it was yet too green for them the loss was not so great but that the remainder was likely to be a good crop if it could be saved I stayed by it to load my gun and then coming away I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me as if they only waited till I was gone away and the event proved it to be so for as I walked off as I was gone I was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped down one by one into the corn again I was so provoked that I could not have patience to stay till more came on knowing that every grain that they ate now was as it might be said easily a peck loaf to me in the consequences but coming up to the hedge I fired again and killed three of them this was what I wished for so I took them up and served them as we serve notorious thieves in England hang them in chains for a terror of them it is impossible to imagine that this should have had such an effect as it did for the fowls would not only not come at the corn but in short they forsook all that part of the island and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows on there this I was very glad of as you may be sure and about the latter end of December which was our second harvest of the year I reaped my corn I was sadly put for a scythe or sickle to cut it down and all I could do was to make one as well as I could out of one of the broadswords or cutlasses which I saved among the arms out of the ship however as my first crop was but small and very difficult to cut it down in short I reaped it in my way for I cut nothing off but the ears and carried it away in a great basket which I had made and so rubbed it out with my hands and at the end of the harvesting I found that out of my half peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice and about two bushels and a half of barley that is to say by my guess for I had no measure at that time however this was a great encouragement to me and I foresaw that in time it would please God to supply me with bread and yet here I was perplexed again for I neither knew how to grind or to make meal of my corn or indeed how to clean it and part it nor if made into meal how to make bread of it and if how to make it yet I knew not how to bake it these things being added to my desire of having a good quantity to store and to secure a constant supply I resolved not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the next season in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread it might be truly said that now I worked for my bread I believe few people have thought much upon the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing producing, curing dressing, making and finishing this one article of bread I that was reduced to a mere state of nature found this to my daily discouragement and was made more sensible of it every hour even after I had got the first handful of seed corn which as I have said came up unexpectedly and indeed to a surprise first I had no plow to turn up the earth no spade or shovel to dig it well this I conquered by making a wooden spade as I observed before but this did my work but in a wooden manner and though it cost me a great many days to make it yet for want of iron it not only wore out soon but made my work the harder and made it be performed much worse however this I bore with and was content to work with it out with patience and bear with the badness of the performance when the corn was sown I had no harrow but was forced to go over it myself and drag a great heavy bow of a tree over it to scratch it as it may be called rather than rake or harrow it when it was growing and grown I have observed already how many things I wanted to dress it, secure it mow or reap it cure and carry it home thrash part it from the chaff and save it then I wanted a mill to grind it sieves to dress it yeast and salt to make it into bread and an oven to bake it in but all these things I did without as shall be observed and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort to all this as I said made everything laborious and tedious to me but that there was no help for neither was my time so much lost to me because as I divided it a certain part of it was every day appointed to these works and as I had resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by me I had the next six months to apply myself wholly by labor and invention to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all the operations necessary for making the corn when I had it fit for my use end of chapter 8 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter, 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe chapter 9 A Boat but first I was to prepare more land for I had now seed enough to sow above an acre of ground before I did this I had a week's work at least to make me a spade which when it was done was but a sorry one indeed and very heavy and required double labor to work with it however I got through that and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground as near my house as I could find them to mind and fence them in with a good hedge the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which I have set before and knew it would grow so that in a years time I knew I should have a quick or living hedge that would want but little repair this work did not take me up less than three months because a great part of that time was the wet season when I could not go abroad with indoors that is when it rained and I could not go out I found employment in the following occupations always observing that all the while I was at work I diverted myself with talking to my parrot and teaching him to speak and I quickly taught him to know his own first name and at last to speak it out pretty loud which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own this therefore was not my work but an assistance to my work for now as I said I had a great employment upon my hands as follows I had long studied to make by some means or other some earthen vessels which indeed I wanted sorely but knew not where to come at them however considering the heat of the climate I did not doubt but if I could find out any clay I might make some pots that might being dried in the sun be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling and to hold anything that was dry and required to be kept so and as this was necessary in the preparing of corn, meal, etc which was the thing I was doing I resolved to make some as large as I could and fit only to stand like jars to hold what should be put into them it would make the reader pity me or rather laugh at me to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste what odd misshapen ugly things I made how many of them fell in and how many fell out the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight how many cracked by the overviolent heat of the sun being set out too hastily and how many fell in pieces with only removing as well before as after they were dried and in a word how after having labored hard to find the clay to dig it, to temper it to bring it home and work it I could not make above too large earthen ugly things I cannot call them jars in about two months labor however as the sun baked these two very hard and dry I lifted them very gently up and set them down again in two great wicker baskets which I had made on purpose for them that they might not break and as between the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw and these two pots being to stand always dry I thought would hold my dry corn and perhaps my meal when the corn was bruised though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots yet I made several smaller things with better success such as little round pots flat dishes pitchers and pipkins and anything my hand turned to and the heat of the sun baked them quite hard but all this would not answer my end which was to get an earthen pot to hold what was liquid and bear the fire which none of these could do it happened after some time making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat when I went to put it out after I was done with it I found a broken piece one of my earthenware vessels in the fire burnt as hard as a stone and read as a tile I was agreeably surprised to see it and said to myself that certainly they might be made to burn whole if they would burn broken this set me to study how to order my fire so as to make it burn some pots I had no notion of a kiln such as the potters burn in or of glazing them with lead though I had some lead to do it with but I placed three large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile one upon another and placed my firewood all around it with a great heap of embers under them I applied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and upon the top till I saw the pots in the inside red hot quite through and observed that they did not crack at all when I saw them clear red I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours till I found one of them did melt or run for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat and would have run into glass if I had gone on so I slapped my fire gradually till the pots began to abate of the red color and watching them all night that I might not let the fire abate too fast in the morning I had three very good I will not say handsome, pipkins and two other earthen pots as hard burnt as could be desired and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand after this experiment I need not say that I wanted no sort of earthenware for my use but I must need say as to the shapes of them they were very indifferent and as anyone may suppose when I had no way of making them but as the children make dirt pies or as a woman who would make pies that never learned to raise paste no joy had a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold before I set one on the fire again with some water in it to boil me some meat which it did admirably well and with a kind of piece of a kid I made some very good broth though I wanted oatmeal and several other ingredients requested to make it as good as I would have had it been my next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn in for as to the mill there was no thought of arriving at that perfection of art with one pair of hands to supply this want I was at a great loss for of all the trades in the world I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone cutter as for any whatever neither had I any tools to go about it with I spent many a day to find a great stone big enough to cut hollow and make fit for a mortar and could find none at all except what was in the solid rock and which I had no way to dig or cut out nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient but were all of a sandy crumbling stone which neither could bear the weight of a heavy pestle nor would break the corn without filling it with sand so after a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone I gave it over and resolved to look out for a great block of hard wood which I found indeed much easier and getting one as big as I had strength to stir I rounded it and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatch it and then with the help of fire and infinite labor made a hollow place in it as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes after this I made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron wood and this I prepared and laid by against I had my next crop of corn which I proposed to myself grind or rather pound into meal to make bread my next difficulty was to make a sieve or sears to dress my meal and to part it from the brand and the husk without which I did not see it possible I could have any bread this was even to look upon for to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it I mean fine thin canvas or stuff to sears the meal through and here I was at a full stop for many months or did I really know what to do let in I had none left but what was mere rags I had goats hair but neither knew how to weave or to spin it and had I known how here were no tools to work it with all the remedy that I found was this that at last I did remember I had among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship some neck cloths of calico or muslin and with some pieces of these I made three small sieves proper enough for the work and thus I made shift for some years how I did afterwards I shall show in its place the baking part was the next thing to be considered and make bread when I came to have corn for first I had no yeast as to that part there was no supplying the want so I did not concern myself much about it but for an oven I was indeed in great pain at length I found out an experiment for that also which was this I made some earthen vessels very broad but not deep that is to say about two feet diameter and not above nine inches deep these I burned in the fire as I had done the other and laid them by and when I wanted to bake I made a great fire upon my hearth which I had paved with some square tiles of my own baking and burning also but I should not call them square when the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals I drew them forward upon this hearth so as to cover it all over and there I let them lie the hearth was very hot then sweeping away all the embers I set down my loaf or loaves and welling down the earthen pot upon them drew the embers all round the outside of the pot to keep in and add to the heat and thus as well as in the best oven in the world I baked my barley loaves and became in little time a good pastry cook into the bargain for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice but I had no pies neither had I anything to put them in supposing I had except the flesh either of fowls or goats it need not be wondered as if all these things took up most of my time of third year of my abode here for it is to be observed that in the interval of these things I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage for I reaped my corn in its season carried it home as well as I could and laid it up in the ear in my large baskets till I had time to rub it out for I had no floor to thrash it upon or instrument to thrash it with and now indeed my stock of corn increasing I really wanted to build my barns bigger I wanted a place to lay it up in for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much that I had of the barley about 20 bushels of the rice as much or more in so much that now I resolved to begin to use it freely for my bread had been quite gone a great while also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year and to sow but once a year upon the whole I found that the 40 bushels of barley and rice were much more than I could consume in a year so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year so the last in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me with bread etc all the while these things were doing you may be sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side of the island and I was not without secret wishes that I were on shore there fancying that seen the mainland and an inhabited country I might find some way or other to convey myself further but perhaps at last find some means of escape but all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such an undertaking and how I might fall into the hands of savages and perhaps such as I might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa that if I once came in their power I should run a hazard of more than a thousand to one of being killed and perhaps of being eaten for I had heard that the people were cannibals or man-eaters and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far from that shore then supposing they were not cannibals yet they might kill me as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served even when they had been 10 or 20 together much more I that was but one and couldn't make little or no defense all these things I say which I ought to have considered well and did come into my thoughts afterwards yet gave me no apprehensions at first and my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting over to the shore now I wish for my boy Shuri and the long boat with the shoulder of mutton sail with which I had sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa but this was in vain then I thought I would go and look at our ship's boat which as I have said was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm when we first cast away she lay almost where she did at first but not quite and was turned by the force of the waves and the winds almost bottom upward against a high ridge of beachy rough sand but no water about her if I had had hands to have refitted her and to have launched her into the water the boat would have done well enough but and I might have gone back into the Brazils with her easily enough yet I might have foreseen that I could no more turn her and set her up right upon her bottom than I could remove the island however I went to the woods and cut levers and rollers and brought them to the boat resolving to try what I could do suggesting to myself that if I could turn her down I might repair the damage she had received and she would be a very good boat and I might go to sea in her very easily I spared no pains indeed in this bit of fruitless toil and spent I think three or four weeks about it at last finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength I failed to dig away the sand to undermine it and so to make it fall down setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall but when I had done this I was unable to stir it up again or to get under it much less to move it forward towards the water so I was forced to give it over and yet though I gave over the hopes of the boat my desire to venture over for the main increased rather than decreased as the means for it seemed impossible this at length put me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe or peri-agua such as the natives of those climates make even without tools or as I might say without hands of the trunk a great tree this I not only thought possible but easy and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts of making it and with my having much more convenience for it than any of the negroes or Indians but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians and that is want of hands to move it when it was made into the water a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of tools could be to them for what was it to me if when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods and with much trouble cut it down if I had been able with my tools to hue and dub the outside with the proper shape of a boat and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow so as to make a boat of it if after all this I must leave it just where I had found it and not be able to launch it into the water one would have thought I could not have had the least reflection upon my mind of the circumstances while I was making this boat but I should have immediately thought how I should get it into the sea but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it that I never once considered how I should get it off the land and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it over 45 miles of sea than about 45 fathoms of land where it lay to set it afloat in order I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did who had any of his senses awake I pleased myself with the design and without determining whether I was ever able to undertake it not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head but I put a stop to my inquiries into this by this foolish answer which I gave myself let me first make it in some way or other to get it along when it is done this was a most preposterous method but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed in to work I went I found a cedar tree and I question much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the temple of Jerusalem it was 5 feet 10 inches diameter at the lower part next to stump and 4 feet 11 inches diameter at the end of 8 after which it lessened for a while and then parted into branches it was not without infinite labor that I felt this stream I was 20 days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom I was 14 more getting the branches and limbs and the vast spreading head cut off which I hacked and hewed through with ax and hatchet and inexpressible labor after this it cost me a month and to something like the bottom of a boat that it might swim upright as it ought to it cost me near 3 months more to clear the inside and work it out so as to make it an exact boat this I did indeed without fire by mere mallet and chisel and by the dent of hard labor till I had brought it to be a very handsome peri-agua and big enough to have carried 6 and 20 men and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo when I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it the boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or peri-agua that was made of one tree in my life many a weary stroke it had cost you can be sure and had I gotten it into the water I make no question but I should have begun the maddest voyage unlikely to be performed that ever was undertaken but all my devices to get it into the water failed me though they cost me infinite labor too it lay about 100 yards from the water and not more but the first inconvenience was it was uphill towards the creek well to take away this discouragement I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth and so make a declivity this I began and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains but who grudge pains who had their deliverance in view but when this was worked through and this difficulty managed it was still much the same for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat then I ventured the distance of ground and resolved to cut a dock or canal to bring the water up to the canoe seeing I could not bring the canoe to the water well I began this work and when I had begun to enter upon it and calculate how deep it was to be dug how broad how the stuff was to be thrown out I found that by the number of hands I had being none but my own it must have been 10 or 12 years before I could have gone through with it for the shore lay so high that at the upper end it must have been at least 20 feet deep and so at length but with great reluctancy I gave this attempt over also this grieved me heartily and now I saw though too late the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it in the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place and kept my anniversary with the same devotion and with as much comfort as ever before for by a constant study and serious application of the word of God and by the assistance of his grace I gained a different knowledge from what I had before I entertained different notions of things I looked now upon the world as a thing remote which I had nothing to do with no expectations from and indeed no desires about in a word I had nothing indeed to do with it nor was ever likely to have so I thought it looked as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter that is as a place I had lived in but was come out of it and well might I say as Father Abraham to dives between me and thee is a great gulf fixed in the first place I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here I had neither the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eye nor the pride of life I had nothing to covet for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying I was lord of the whole manner or if it pleased I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had possession of there were no rivals I had no competitor to dispute sovereignty or command me I might have raised ship loadings of corn but had no use for it so I let as little grow as I thought enough for my occasion I had tortoise or turtle enough but now and then one was as much as I could put to any use I had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships and I had grapes enough to have made wine or to have cured into raisins to have loaded that fleet when it had been built but all I could make use of was all that was valuable I had enough to eat and supply my wants and what was all the rest to me if I killed more flesh than I could eat the dog must eat it or vermin if I sowed more corn than I could eat it must be spoiled the trees that I cut down and brought to the ground I could make no more use of them but for fuel and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food in a word the nature and experience of things dictated to me upon just reflection that all the good things of this world are no farther good to us than they are for our use in that whatever we may heap up to give others we enjoy just as much as we can use in no more the most covetous gripping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in my case for I possessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with I had no room for desire except it was of things which I had not and they were but trifles though indeed of great use to me I had as I hinted before a parcel of money as well gold and silver about thirty-six pounds sterling alas there the sorry useless stuff lay I had no more manner of business for it and often though with myself that I would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco pipes or for a hand mill to grind my corn nay I would have given it all I would have kept in carrot seed out of England or for a handful of peas and beans and a bottle of ink as it was I had not the least advantage by it or benefit from it but there it lay in a drawer and grew moldy with the damp of the cave in the wet seasons and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds it had been the same case they had been of no manner of value to me of no use I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first and much easier to my mind as well as to my body I frequently sat down to meet with thankfulness and admired the hands of God's providence which had thus spread my table in the wilderness I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition and less upon the dark side to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts that I cannot express them and which I take notice of here to put these discontented people in my mind of it who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet something that he has not given them all our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have another reflection was of great use to me and doubtless would be so to anyone that would fall into such distress as mine was and this was to compare my present condition with what I at first expected it would be nay with what it would certainly have been if the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer to the shore and only could come at her but could bring what I got out of her to the shore for my relief and comfort without which I had wanted for tools to work, weapons for defense and gunpowder and shot for getting my food I spent whole hours I may say whole days in representing to myself in the most lively colors how I would have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship I could not have so much as got any food except fish and turtles and that as it was long before I found any of them I must have perished first that I should have lived if I had not perished like a mere savage that if I had killed a goat or a foul by any contrivance I had no way to flay or open it or part the flesh from the skin or to cut it up but must gnaw it with my teeth and pull it with my claws like a beast these reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me and very thankful of my present condition with all its hardships and misfortunes and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery to say reflection like mine let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are and their case might have been if Providence had thought to fit I had another reflection which assisted me also to comfort my mind with hopes and this was comparing my present situation with what I had deserved and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence I had lived a dreadful life perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God I had been well instructed by father and mother neither had they been wanting to me in their early endeavors to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind a sense of my duty and what the nature and end of my being required of me but alas falling early into the seafaring life which of all lives is the most destitute of the fear of God though his terrors are always before them I say falling early into the seafaring life and into seafaring company all that little sense of religion which I had entertained was laughed out of me by my messmates by a hardened despising of dangers and the views of death which grew habitual to me by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with anything but was like myself or to hear anything that was good or tended towards it so void was I of everything that was good or the least sense of what I was or was to be that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed such as my escape from Salih my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship my being planted so well in the Brazils my receiving the cargo from England and the like had once the words thank God so much as on my mind or in my mouth nor in the greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray to him or so much as to say lord have mercy upon me nor to mention the name of God no unless it was to swear by and blaspheme it I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months as I have already observed on account of my wicked and hardened life past and when I looked about me and considered what particular providences had attended me since my coming into this place and how God had dealt bountifully with me had not only punished me less than my iniquity had deserved but had so plentifully provided for me this gave me great hopes my repentance was accepted and that God had yet mercy in store for me with these reflections I worked my mind up not only to a resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances but even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition in that I who was yet a living man ought not to complain seeing I had not the due punishment of my sins I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to have expected in that place that I ought never more to repine at my condition but to rejoice and to give daily thanks for that daily bread which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought that I ought to consider I had been fed even by a miracle even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens made by a long series of miracles that I could hard