الفصل الفصل 12 · A CAVE RETREAT

. A CAVE RETREAT

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other

affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats:

they were not only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to

be sufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also

without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to

lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over

again.

For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but two

ways to preserve them: one was, to find another convenient place to dig

a cave underground, and to drive them into it every night; and the

other was to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one

another, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep about

half-a-dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster

happened to the flock in general, I might be able to raise them again

with little trouble and time: and this though it would require a good

deal of time and labour, I thought was the most rational design.

Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of

the island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private, indeed, as my

heart could wish: it was a little damp piece of ground in the middle of

the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself

once before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part

of the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so

surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at

least, it did not want near so much labour to make it so as the other

piece of ground I had worked so hard at.

I immediately went to work with this piece of ground; and in less than

a month’s time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it

which you please, which were not so wild now as at first they might be

supposed to be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any further

delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece,

and when they were there I continued to perfect the fence till I had

made it as secure as the other; which, however, I did at more leisure,

and it took me up more time by a great deal. All this labour I was at

the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on account of the print of

a man’s foot; for as yet I had never seen any human creature come near

the island; and I had now lived two years under this uneasiness, which,

indeed, made my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may

be well imagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant

snare of the fear of man. And this I must observe, with grief, too,

that the discomposure of my mind had great impression also upon the

religious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into

the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I

seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my Maker; at

least, not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was

wont to do: I rather prayed to God as under great affliction and

pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every

night of being murdered and devoured before morning; and I must

testify, from my experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness,

love, and affection, is much the more proper frame for prayer than that

of terror and discomposure: and that under the dread of mischief

impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting performance of the

duty of praying to God than he is for a repentance on a sick-bed; for

these discomposures affect the mind, as the others do the body; and the

discomposure of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability as

that of the body, and much greater; praying to God being properly an

act of the mind, not of the body.

But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my little living

stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another private

place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to the west

point of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I

thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found a

perspective glass or two in one of the seamen’s chests, which I saved

out of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote that

I could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes

were not able to hold to look any longer; whether it was a boat or not

I do not know, but as I descended from the hill I could see no more of

it, so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more out without a

perspective glass in my pocket. When I was come down the hill to the

end of the island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was

presently convinced that the seeing the print of a man’s foot was not

such a strange thing in the island as I imagined: and but that it was a

special providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where

the savages never came, I should easily have known that nothing was

more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when they happened to

be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the

island for harbour: likewise, as they often met and fought in their

canoes, the victors, having taken any prisoners, would bring them over

to this shore, where, according to their dreadful customs, being all

cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which hereafter.

When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being the

SW. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is

it possible for me to express the horror of my mind at seeing the shore

spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and

particularly I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a

circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where I supposed the savage

wretches had sat down to their human feastings upon the bodies of their

fellow-creatures.

I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I entertained

no notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while: all my

apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman,

hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature,

which, though I had heard of it often, yet I never had so near a view

of before; in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle;

my stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when

nature discharged the disorder from my stomach; and having vomited with

uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay

in the place a moment; so I got up the hill again with all the speed I

could, and walked on towards my own habitation.

When I came a little out of that part of the island I stood still

awhile, as amazed, and then, recovering myself, I looked up with the

utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes,

gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world

where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and

that, though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had

yet given me so many comforts in it that I had still more to give

thanks for than to complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even

in this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of

Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was a felicity more than

sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered, or

could suffer.

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began to be

much easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I was

before: for I observed that these wretches never came to this island in

search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not

expecting anything here; and having often, no doubt, been up the

covered, woody part of it without finding anything to their purpose. I

knew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least

footsteps of human creature there before; and I might be eighteen years

more as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself

to them, which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only

business to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found

a better sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet

I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have

been speaking of, and of the wretched, inhuman custom of their

devouring and eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad,

and kept close within my own circle for almost two years after this:

when I say my own circle, I mean by it my three plantations—viz. my

castle, my country seat (which I called my bower), and my enclosure in

the woods: nor did I look after this for any other use than an

enclosure for my goats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these

hellish wretches was such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of

seeing the devil himself. I did not so much as go to look after my boat

all this time, but began rather to think of making another; for I could

not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat

round the island to me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures

at sea; in which case, if I had happened to have fallen into their

hands, I knew what would have been my lot.

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of

being discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness about

them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before,

only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes

more about me than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any

of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest

any of them, being on the island, should happen to hear it. It was,

therefore, a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself

with a tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any more

about the woods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after

this, it was by traps and snares, as I had done before; so that for two

years after this I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I

never went out without it; and what was more, as I had saved three

pistols out of the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least

two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up

one of the great cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a

belt to hang it on also; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to

look at when I went abroad, if you add to the former description of

myself the particular of two pistols, and a broadsword hanging at my

side in a belt, but without a scabbard.

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,

excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm, sedate way

of living. All these things tended to show me more and more how far my

condition was from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to

many other particulars of life which it might have pleased God to have

made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would

be among mankind at any condition of life if people would rather

compare their condition with those that were worse, in order to be

thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to

assist their murmurings and complainings.

As in my present condition there were not really many things which I

wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about these

savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation,

had taken off the edge of my invention, for my own conveniences; and I

had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon, and

that was to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and

then try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought,

and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it: for I presently

saw there would be the want of several things necessary to the making

my beer that it would be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks

to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already,

I could never compass: no, though I spent not only many days, but

weeks, nay months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next

place, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no

copper or kettle to make it boil; and yet with all these things

wanting, I verily believe, had not the frights and terrors I was in

about the savages intervened, I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought

it to pass too; for I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing

it, when once I had it in my head to began it. But my invention now ran

quite another way; for night and day I could think of nothing but how I

might destroy some of the monsters in their cruel, bloody

entertainment, and if possible save the victim they should bring hither

to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than this whole work is

intended to be to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or rather

brooded upon, in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or at

least frightening them so as to prevent their coming hither any more:

but all this was abortive; nothing could be possible to take effect,

unless I was to be there to do it myself: and what could one man do

among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them

together with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they

could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun?

Sometimes I thought of digging a hole under the place where they made

their fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when

they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all

that was near it: but as, in the first place, I should be unwilling to

waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity

of one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at any

certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would

do little more than just blow the fire about their ears and fright

them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place: so I laid it

aside; and then proposed that I would place myself in ambush in some

convenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and in the

middle of their bloody ceremony let fly at them, when I should be sure

to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling

in upon them with my three pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but

that, if there were twenty, I should kill them all. This fancy pleased

my thoughts for some weeks, and I was so full of it that I often

dreamed of it, and, sometimes, that I was just going to let fly at them

in my sleep. I went so far with it in my imagination that I employed

myself several days to find out proper places to put myself in

ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them, and I went frequently to the

place itself, which was now grown more familiar to me; but while my

mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge and a bloody putting

twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I

had at the place, and at the signals of the barbarous wretches

devouring one another, abetted my malice. Well, at length I found a

place in the side of the hill where I was satisfied I might securely

wait till I saw any of their boats coming; and might then, even before

they would be ready to come on shore, convey myself unseen into some

thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow large enough to

conceal me entirely; and there I might sit and observe all their bloody

doings, and take my full aim at their heads, when they were so close

together as that it would be next to impossible that I should miss my

shot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of them at the first

shot. In this place, then, I resolved to fulfil my design; and

accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The

two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five

smaller bullets, about the size of pistol bullets; and the

fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot of the largest

size; I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each; and, in

this posture, well provided with ammunition for a second and third

charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my imagination

put it in practice, I continually made my tour every morning to the top

of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about three

miles or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, coming

near the island, or standing over towards it; but I began to tire of

this hard duty, after I had for two or three months constantly kept my

watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not, in

all that time, been the least appearance, not only on or near the

shore, but on the whole ocean, so far as my eye or glass could reach

every way.

As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out, so long also

I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the

while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution as the killing

twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which I had not at all

entered into any discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my

passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural

custom of the people of that country, who, it seems, had been suffered

by Providence, in His wise disposition of the world, to have no other

guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and

consequently were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act

such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but

nature, entirely abandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellish

degeneracy, could have run them into. But now, when, as I have said, I

began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long

and so far every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself

began to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to

consider what I was going to engage in; what authority or call I had to

pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom

Heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished to go on,

and to be as it were the executioners of His judgments one upon

another; how far these people were offenders against me, and what right

I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed

promiscuously upon one another. I debated this very often with myself

thus: “How do I know what God Himself judges in this particular case?

It is certain these people do not commit this as a crime; it is not

against their own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching

them; they do not know it to be an offence, and then commit it in

defiance of divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit.

They think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war than we do

to kill an ox; or to eat human flesh than we do to eat mutton.”

When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I was

certainly in the wrong; that these people were not murderers, in the

sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any more than

those Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners

taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole

troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw

down their arms and submitted. In the next place, it occurred to me

that although the usage they gave one another was thus brutish and

inhuman, yet it was really nothing to me: these people had done me no

injury: that if they attempted, or I saw it necessary, for my immediate

preservation, to fall upon them, something might be said for it: but

that I was yet out of their power, and they really had no knowledge of

me, and consequently no design upon me; and therefore it could not be

just for me to fall upon them; that this would justify the conduct of

the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in America, where they

destroyed millions of these people; who, however they were idolators

and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in their

customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as

to the Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the rooting them out

of the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation

by even the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by all other

Christian nations of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural

piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and for which the

very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible, to

all people of humanity or of Christian compassion; as if the kingdom of

Spain were particularly eminent for the produce of a race of men who

were without principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to

the miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the

mind.

These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a full

stop; and I began by little and little to be off my design, and to

conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack the

savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless

they first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, to

prevent: but that, if I were discovered and attacked by them, I knew my

duty. On the other hand, I argued with myself that this really was the

way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for

unless I was sure to kill every one that not only should be on shore at

that time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of

them escaped to tell their country-people what had happened, they would

come over again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and

I should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, at

present, I had no manner of occasion for. Upon the whole, I concluded

that I ought, neither in principle nor in policy, one way or other, to

concern myself in this affair: that my business was, by all possible

means to conceal myself from them, and not to leave the least sign for

them to guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island—I

mean of human shape. Religion joined in with this prudential

resolution; and I was convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly

out of my duty when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the

destruction of innocent creatures—I mean innocent as to me. As to the

crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had nothing to do

with them; they were national, and I ought to leave them to the justice

of God, who is the Governor of nations, and knows how, by national

punishments, to make a just retribution for national offences, and to

bring public judgments upon those who offend in a public manner, by

such ways as best please Him. This appeared so clear to me now, that

nothing was a greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been

suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would

have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder if I had committed

it; and I gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that He had thus

delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching Him to grant me the

protection of His providence, that I might not fall into the hands of

the barbarians, or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I

had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far

was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that

in all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there

were any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on

shore there or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my

contrivances against them, or be provoked by any advantage that might

present itself to fall upon them; only this I did: I went and removed

my boat, which I had on the other side of the island, and carried it

down to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little

cove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason

of the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not, come with

their boats upon any account whatever. With my boat I carried away

everything that I had left there belonging to her, though not necessary

for the bare going thither—viz. a mast and sail which I had made for

her, and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be called

either anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of its

kind: all these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow for

discovery, or appearance of any boat, or of any human habitation upon

the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than

ever, and seldom went from my cell except upon my constant employment,

to milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as

it was quite on the other part of the island, was out of danger; for

certain, it is that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this

island, never came with any thoughts of finding anything here, and

consequently never wandered off from the coast, and I doubt not but

they might have been several times on shore after my apprehensions of

them had made me cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked back

with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been

if I had chopped upon them and been discovered before that; when, naked

and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often only with small

shot, I walked everywhere, peeping and peering about the island, to see

what I could get; what a surprise should I have been in if, when I

discovered the print of a man’s foot, I had, instead of that, seen

fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and by the

swiftness of their running no possibility of my escaping them! The

thoughts of this sometimes sank my very soul within me, and distressed

my mind so much that I could not soon recover it, to think what I

should have done, and how I should not only have been unable to resist

them, but even should not have had presence of mind enough to do what I

might have done; much less what now, after so much consideration and

preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking of

these things, I would be melancholy, and sometimes it would last a

great while; but I resolved it all at last into thankfulness to that

Providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and had

kept me from those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent

in delivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of any

such thing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible.

This renewed a contemplation which often had come into my thoughts in

former times, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of

Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we

are delivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a

quandary as we call it, a doubt or hesitation whether to go this way or

that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to

go that way: nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business

has called us to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the

mind, from we know not what springs, and by we know not what power,

shall overrule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear that

had we gone that way, which we should have gone, and even to our

imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost.

Upon these and many like reflections I afterwards made it a certain

rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of

mind to doing or not doing anything that presented, or going this way

or that way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate; though I knew

no other reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hung upon my

mind. I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the

course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of my

inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very

likely I might have taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes

then that I see with now. But it is never too late to be wise; and I

cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives are attended with

such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even though not so

extraordinary, not to slight such secret intimations of Providence, let

them come from what invisible intelligence they will. That I shall not

discuss, and perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof

of the converse of spirits, and a secret communication between those

embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be

withstood; of which I shall have occasion to give some remarkable

instances in the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal

place.

I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess

that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the

concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all

the contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations and

conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than

that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood

now, for fear the noise I might make should be heard: much less would I

fire a gun for the same reason: and above all I was intolerably uneasy

at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great

distance in the day, should betray me. For this reason, I removed that

part of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots and

pipes, &c., into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I had been

some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave

in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I daresay, no

savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture

in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted

nothing so much as a safe retreat.

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where, by

mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe

all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some thick

branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on I must observe

the reason of my making this charcoal, which was this—I was afraid of

making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I could

not live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so I

contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under

turf, till it became chark or dry coal: and then putting the fire out,

I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services for

which fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. But this is

by-the-bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, I perceived that,

behind a very thick branch of low brushwood or underwood, there was a

kind of hollow place: I was curious to look in it; and getting with

difficulty into the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large, that is

to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another

with me: but I must confess to you that I made more haste out than I

did in, when looking farther into the place, and which was perfectly

dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or

man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the

cave’s mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection. However,

after some pause I recovered myself, and began to call myself a

thousand fools, and to think that he that was afraid to see the devil

was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone; and that I

might well think there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful

than myself. Upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand,

and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not

gone three steps in before I was almost as frightened as before; for I

heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was

followed by a broken noise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep

sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise

that it put me into a cold sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I

will not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. But

still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself

a little with considering that the power and presence of God was

everywhere, and was able to protect me, I stepped forward again, and by

the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, I saw

lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful old he-goat, just making his

will, as we say, and gasping for life, and, dying, indeed, of mere old

age. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he

essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought

with myself he might even lie there—for if he had frightened me, so he

would certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so

hardy as to come in there while he had any life in him.

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when

I found the cave was but very small—that is to say, it might be about

twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor square,

no hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mere

Nature. I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of

it that went in further, but was so low that it required me to creep

upon my hands and knees to go into it, and whither it went I knew not;

so, having no candle, I gave it over for that time, but resolved to go

again the next day provided with candles and a tinder-box, which I had

made of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wildfire in the pan.

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of my

own making (for I made very good candles now of goat’s tallow, but was

hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, and

sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles); and going into this

low place I was obliged to creep upon all-fours as I have said, almost

ten yards—which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold enough,

considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyond

it. When I had got through the strait, I found the roof rose higher up,

I believe near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen in

the island, I daresay, as it was to look round the sides and roof of

this vault or cave—the wall reflected a hundred thousand lights to me

from my two candles. What it was in the rock—whether diamonds or any

other precious stones, or gold which I rather supposed it to be—I knew

not. The place I was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, though

perfectly dark; the floor was dry and level, and had a sort of a small

loose gravel upon it, so that there was no nauseous or venomous

creature to be seen, neither was there any damp or wet on the sides or

roof. The only difficulty in it was the entrance—which, however, as it

was a place of security, and such a retreat as I wanted; I thought was

a convenience; so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and

resolved, without any delay, to bring some of those things which I was

most anxious about to this place: particularly, I resolved to bring

hither my magazine of powder, and all my spare arms—viz. two

fowling-pieces—for I had three in all—and three muskets—for of them I

had eight in all; so I kept in my castle only five, which stood ready

mounted like pieces of cannon on my outmost fence, and were ready also

to take out upon any expedition. Upon this occasion of removing my

ammunition I happened to open the barrel of powder which I took up out

of the sea, and which had been wet, and I found that the water had

penetrated about three or four inches into the powder on every side,

which caking and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a kernel

in the shell, so that I had near sixty pounds of very good powder in

the centre of the cask. This was a very agreeable discovery to me at

that time; so I carried all away thither, never keeping above two or

three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of a surprise of

any kind; I also carried thither all the lead I had left for bullets.

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who were said to

live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come at them;

for I persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five hundred savages

were to hunt me, they could never find me out—or if they did, they

would not venture to attack me here. The old goat whom I found expiring

died in the mouth of the cave the next day after I made this discovery;

and I found it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in

and cover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him

there, to prevent offence to my nose.