Kabanata Kabanata 11 · FINDS PRINT OF MAN’S FOOT ON THE SAND

. FINDS PRINT OF MAN’S FOOT ON THE SAND

It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my little family

sit down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and lord of the

whole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute

command; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no

rebels among all my subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined,

too, all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my

favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was

now grown old and crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind

upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the

table and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand,

as a mark of especial favour.

But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first, for

they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation

by my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I know not what

kind of creature, these were two which I had preserved tame; whereas

the rest ran wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at

last, for they would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till

at last I was obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at

length they left me. With this attendance and in this plentiful manner

I lived; neither could I be said to want anything but society; and of

that, some time after this, I was likely to have too much.

I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of my

boat, though very loath to run any more hazards; and therefore

sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at

other times I sat myself down contented enough without her. But I had a

strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island

where, as I have said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how

the shore lay, and how the current set, that I might see what I had to

do: this inclination increased upon me every day, and at length I

resolved to travel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I

did so; but had any one in England met such a man as I was, it must

either have frightened him, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as

I frequently stood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at

the notion of my travelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage,

and in such a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as

follows.

I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s skin, with a flap

hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the

rain off from running into my neck, nothing being so hurtful in these

climates as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes.

I had a short jacket of goat’s skin, the skirts coming down to about

the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the

same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair

hung down such a length on either side that, like pantaloons, it

reached to the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but

had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce knew what to call them, like

buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like

spatterdashes, but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the

rest of my clothes.

I had on a broad belt of goat’s skin dried, which I drew together with

two thongs of the same instead of buckles, and in a kind of a frog on

either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw

and a hatchet, one on one side and one on the other. I had another belt

not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my

shoulder, and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches,

both made of goat’s skin too, in one of which hung my powder, in the

other my shot. At my back I carried my basket, and on my shoulder my

gun, and over my head a great clumsy, ugly, goat’s-skin umbrella, but

which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me next to

my gun. As for my face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like

as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living

within nine or ten degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered

to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both

scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what

grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of

Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by some Turks at Sallee,

for the Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did; of these

moustachios, or whiskers, I will not say they were long enough to hang

my hat upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough,

and such as in England would have passed for frightful.

But all this is by-the-bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to

observe me that it was of no manner of consequence, so I say no more of

that. In this kind of dress I went my new journey, and was out five or

six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the place

where I first brought my boat to an anchor to get upon the rocks; and

having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearer way

to the same height that I was upon before, when, looking forward to the

points of the rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to double

with my boat, as is said above, I was surprised to see the sea all

smooth and quiet—no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there

than in other places. I was at a strange loss to understand this, and

resolved to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing from

the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently convinced

how it was—viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining

with the current of waters from some great river on the shore, must be

the occasion of this current, and that, according as the wind blew more

forcibly from the west or from the north, this current came nearer or

went farther from the shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, I

went up to the rock again, and then the tide of ebb being made, I

plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off,

being near half a league from the shore, whereas in my case it set

close upon the shore, and hurried me and my canoe along with it, which

at another time it would not have done.

This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to observe

the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring

my boat about the island again; but when I began to think of putting it

in practice, I had such terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of

the danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with any

patience, but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was

more safe, though more laborious—and this was, that I would build, or

rather make, me another periagua or canoe, and so have one for one side

of the island, and one for the other.

You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, two plantations

in the island—one my little fortification or tent, with the wall about

it, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time I had

enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One of

these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my

wall or fortification—that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to

the rock—was all filled up with the large earthen pots of which I have

given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which

would hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of

provisions, especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the

straw, and the other rubbed out with my hand.

As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those piles

grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread so

very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one’s view,

of any habitation behind them.

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and

upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept duly

cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its

season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land

adjoining as fit as that.

Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerable

plantation there also; for, first, I had my little bower, as I called

it, which I kept in repair—that is to say, I kept the hedge which

encircled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder

standing always in the inside. I kept the trees, which at first were no

more than stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut, so

that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more

agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle

of this I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread

over poles, set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair

or renewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch with the

skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a

blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had

saved; and a great watch-coat to cover me. And here, whenever I had

occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country

habitation.

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say my

goats, and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and

enclose this ground. I was so anxious to see it kept entire, lest the

goats should break through, that I never left off till, with infinite

labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes,

and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and

there was scarce room to put a hand through between them; which

afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy

season, made the enclosure strong like a wall, indeed stronger than any

wall.

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no

pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable

support, for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus

at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and

cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty

years; and that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my

perfecting my enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of

keeping them together; which by this method, indeed, I so effectually

secured, that when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted

them so very thick that I was forced to pull some of them up again.

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally

depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to

preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my

whole diet; and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal,

wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.

As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the

place where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in

my way thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I kept all

things about or belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went

out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go,

scarcely ever above a stone’s cast or two from the shore, I was so

apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents

or winds, or any other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my

life.

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was

exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the

shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one

thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked

round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a

rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and down the shore,

but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that one. I

went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it

might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was

exactly the print of a foot—toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How

it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after

innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out

of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the

ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me

at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and

fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to

describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented

things to me in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my

fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts

by the way.

When I came to my castle (for so I think I called it ever after this),

I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, as

first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I had called

a door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning,

for never frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more

terror of mind than I to this retreat.

I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of my

fright, the greater my apprehensions were, which is something contrary

to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice of

all creatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful

ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to

myself, even though I was now a great way off. Sometimes I fancied it

must be the devil, and reason joined in with me in this supposition,

for how should any other thing in human shape come into the place?

Where was the vessel that brought them? What marks were there of any

other footstep? And how was it possible a man should come there? But

then, to think that Satan should take human shape upon him in such a

place, where there could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave

the print of his foot behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for

he could not be sure I should see it—this was an amusement the other

way. I considered that the devil might have found out abundance of

other ways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a

foot; that as I lived quite on the other side of the island, he would

never have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where it was

ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not, and in the

sand too, which the first surge of the sea, upon a high wind, would

have defaced entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with the thing

itself and with all the notions we usually entertain of the subtlety of

the devil.

Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all

apprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concluded then

that it must be some more dangerous creature—viz. that it must be some

of the savages of the mainland opposite who had wandered out to sea in

their canoes, and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds,

had made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone away again to

sea; being as loath, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as

I would have been to have had them.

While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very thankful in

my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time,

or that they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded

that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched

farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about

their having found out my boat, and that there were people here; and

that, if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers

and devour me; that if it should happen that they should not find me,

yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry away

all my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former confidence

in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had

of His goodness; as if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto could not

preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me by His

goodness. I reproached myself with my laziness, that would not sow any

more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as if

no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was

upon the ground; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved

for the future to have two or three years’ corn beforehand; so that,

whatever might come, I might not perish for want of bread.

How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by

what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as

different circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate;

to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow

we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was

exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable;

for I, whose only affliction was that I seemed banished from human

society, that I was alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut

off from mankind, and condemned to what I call silent life; that I was

as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered among the living,

or to appear among the rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of

my own species would have seemed to me a raising me from death to life,

and the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme

blessing of salvation, could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble

at the very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into

the ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a man having set

his foot in the island.

Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great many

curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my first

surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely

wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I could

not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I

was not to dispute His sovereignty; who, as I was His creature, had an

undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as

He thought fit; and who, as I was a creature that had offended Him, had

likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought

fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because

I had sinned against Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not

only righteous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish and

afflict me, so He was able to deliver me: that if He did not think fit

to do so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and

entirely to His will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to

hope in Him, pray to Him, and quietly to attend to the dictates and

directions of His daily providence.

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeks and

months: and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I

cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with

thoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found it

discomposed me very much; upon which these words of the Scripture came

into my thoughts, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will

deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.” Upon this, rising cheerfully

out of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and

encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I had done

praying I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words

that presented to me were, “Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and

He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is

impossible to express the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully

laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion.

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it

came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of

my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I

came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I

began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing

else but my own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat,

as well as I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also

that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I

had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot,

I had played the part of those fools who try to make stories of

spectres and apparitions, and then are frightened at them more than

anybody.

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had not

stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to

starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but

some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be

milked too, which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor

creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and,

indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk.

Encouraging myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing

but the print of one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to

start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my

country house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I went

forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready every now and

then to lay down my basket and run for my life, it would have made any

one have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had

been lately most terribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I

went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began to

be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but my

own imagination; but I could not persuade myself fully of this till I

should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot, and

measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness,

that I might be assured it was my own foot: but when I came to the

place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat

I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts; secondly, when I

came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so large

by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new

imaginations, and gave me the vapours again to the highest degree, so

that I shook with cold like one in an ague; and I went home again,

filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there;

or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised

before I was aware; and what course to take for my security I knew not.

Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! It

deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their

relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down my

enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the

enemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the

same or the like booty: then the simple thing of digging up my two

corn-fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still be

prompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent,

that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to

look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.

These were the subject of the first night’s cogitations after I was

come home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind

were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours. Thus, fear of

danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when

apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by

much, than the evil which we are anxious about: and what was worse than

all this, I had not that relief in this trouble that from the

resignation I used to practise I hoped to have. I looked, I thought,

like Saul, who complained not only that the Philistines were upon him,

but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways to

compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon His

providence, as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance;

which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supported

under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more

resolution.

This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the

morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been as

it were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and

waked much better composed than I had ever been before. And now I began

to think sedately; and, upon debate with myself, I concluded that this

island (which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful, and no farther

from the mainland than as I had seen) was not so entirely abandoned as

I might imagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who

lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from

the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never but when they were

driven by cross winds, might come to this place; that I had lived there

fifteen years now and had not met with the least shadow or figure of

any people yet; and that, if at any time they should be driven here, it

was probable they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing

they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion; that the most

I could suggest any danger from was from any casual accidental landing

of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were

driven hither, were here against their wills, so they made no stay

here, but went off again with all possible speed; seldom staying one

night on shore, lest they should not have the help of the tides and

daylight back again; and that, therefore, I had nothing to do but to

consider of some safe retreat, in case I should see any savages land

upon the spot.

Now, I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to

bring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond

where my fortification joined to the rock: upon maturely considering

this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the

manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had

planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I

made mention: these trees having been planted so thick before, they

wanted but few piles to be driven between them, that they might be

thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished. So that I had

now a double wall; and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of

timber, old cables, and everything I could think of, to make it strong;

having in it seven little holes, about as big as I might put my arm out

at. In the inside of this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick

with continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the

foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes I

contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I had got

seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted like my cannon, and

fitted them into frames, that held them like a carriage, so that I

could fire all the seven guns in two minutes’ time; this wall I was

many a weary month in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till

it was done.

When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great

length every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the osier-like wood,

which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch that I

believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty

large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an

enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they

attempted to approach my outer wall.

Thus in two years’ time I had a thick grove; and in five or six years’

time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrously thick and

strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what

kind soever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much

less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in

and out (for I left no avenue), it was by setting two ladders, one to a

part of the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to

place another ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down

no man living could come down to me without doing himself mischief; and

if they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.

Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own

preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not

altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time

more than my mere fear suggested to me.