Chapter Chapter 8 · SURVEYS HIS POSITION

. SURVEYS HIS POSITION

I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island, and

that I had travelled 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 sea-shore 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 vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of

the sea to the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried

land—whether an island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very

high, extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great distance; by

my guess it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.

I could not tell what part of the world 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; and therefore I acquiesced in the

dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe

ordered everything for the best; I say 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 Brazils, 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 much pleasanter than mine—the

open or savannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full

of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain 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 to call me by name 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 hares (as I thought them to be) and foxes; but they differed

greatly from all the other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy

myself to eat them, though I killed several. But I had no need to be

venturous, for I had no want of food, and of that which was very good

too, especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle, or

tortoise, which added to my grapes, Leadenhall 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 to any extremities for food, but had

rather plenty, even to dainties.

I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, or

thereabouts; but I took so many turns and re-turns 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 a row of stakes set upright in the

ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature

could come at me without waking me.

As soon as I came to the sea-shore, 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 was also an infinite

number of fowls of many kinds, some 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 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 it were upon a journey, and from home. However, I

travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose about

twelve 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 round till I came to my post again.

I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could

easily keep all the island so much in my view that I could not miss

finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself

mistaken, for being come about two or three 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 of the day. It happened, to

my further misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four

days while I was in the valley, and not being able to see the sun, I

wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find the

seaside, look 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 two,

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-yarn, which I

always carried about me, I led him along, though with 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 abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my

own house, as 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 Poll, 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 penned in within my little circle, and

resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food; accordingly I

went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it could not get out,

but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of

trees, and branches of such 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 the same 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

providence 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, than the wicked,

cursed, abominable life I led all 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 my mind, this would break out upon me like a

storm, and make me wring 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;

and 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 leave 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 ill consequence can it be, or what

matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other

hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour 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

canst thou become such a hypocrite,” said I, even audibly, “to pretend

to be thankful for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to

be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily 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 in England, 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 three

hours in every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering,

cutting, preserving, and cooking what I had killed or caught for my

supply; these took up great 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 four 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 allowed for labour I desire may be added the

exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of

tools, want of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out of

my time. For example, I was full two and forty days in making a board

for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with

their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six 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 three days in

cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, 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, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a

board from end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the other

side til I brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth

on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece

of work; but labour and patience carried me through that, and many

other things. I only observe this in particular, to show the reason why

so much of my time went away with so little work—viz. that what might

be a little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour and

required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. But

notwithstanding this, with patience and labour 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. The ground I had manured and dug up for them was not

great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity

of half a peck, 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 hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the

blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so

close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalk.

This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a

hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more, because it

required speed. 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 forsook the

place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen

apace.

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 throve, 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 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 if 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, a peck-loaf to me in

the consequence; 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—hanged them in

chains, for a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this

should have such an effect as it had, 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 hung there. This I was very glad of, 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 to it 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, I had no great

difficulty 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 all my

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 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 for 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; and 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 plough to turn up the earth—no spade or shovel to dig

it. Well, this I conquered by making me 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 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 bough 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 fence 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;

but all these things I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the

corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me too. 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 loss to me, because, as I had

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 labour 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.