Kabanata Kabanata 13 · WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP

. WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP

I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island, and

was so naturalised to the place and the manner of living, that, could I

but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place

to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for

spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had

laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also

arrived to some little diversions and amusements, which made the time

pass a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before—first, I

had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so

familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very

pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six-and-twenty years.

How long he might have lived afterwards I know not, though I know they

have a notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred years. My dog was

a pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of

my time, and then died of mere old age. As for my cats, they

multiplied, as I have observed, to that degree that I was obliged to

shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring me and all

I had; but at length, when the two old ones I brought with me were

gone, and after some time continually driving them from me, and letting

them have no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods,

except two or three favourites, which I kept tame, and whose young,

when they had any, I always drowned; and these were part of my family.

Besides these I always kept two or three household kids about me, whom

I taught to feed out of my hand; and I had two more parrots, which

talked pretty well, and would all call “Robin Crusoe,” but none like my

first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains with any of them that I had

done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose name I knew

not, that I caught upon the shore, and cut their wings; and the little

stakes which I had planted before my castle-wall being now grown up to

a good thick grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and

bred there, which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I

began to be very well contented with the life I led, if I could have

been secured from the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise

directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my

story to make this just observation from it: How frequently, in the

course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and

which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is

oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we

can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could

give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life; but

in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in the

circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island.

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third

year; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot call

it), was the particular time of my harvest, and required me to be

pretty much abroad in the fields, when, going out early in the morning,

even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a

light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two

miles, toward that part of the island where I had observed some savages

had been, as before, and not on the other side; but, to my great

affliction, it was on my side of the island.

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short within

my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised; and yet I

had no more peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if these

savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing or

cut, or any of my works or improvements, they would immediately

conclude that there were people in the place, and would then never rest

till they had found me out. In this extremity I went back directly to

my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all things without

look as wild and natural as I could.

Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence.

I loaded all my cannon, as I called them—that is to say, my muskets,

which were mounted upon my new fortification—and all my pistols, and

resolved to defend myself to the last gasp—not forgetting seriously to

commend myself to the Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God

to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. I continued in this

posture about two hours, and began to be impatient for intelligence

abroad, for I had no spies to send out. After sitting a while longer,

and musing what I should do in this case, I was not able to bear

sitting in ignorance longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the

hill, where there was a flat place, as I observed before, and then

pulling the ladder after me, I set it up again and mounted the top of

the hill, and pulling out my perspective glass, which I had taken on

purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, and began to

look for the place. I presently found there were no less than nine

naked savages sitting round a small fire they had made, not to warm

them, for they had no need of that, the weather being extremely hot,

but, as I supposed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of human

flesh which they had brought with them, whether alive or dead I could

not tell.

They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore;

and as it was then ebb of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the

return of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what

confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my

side of the island, and so near to me; but when I considered their

coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards

to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad

with safety all the time of the flood of tide, if they were not on

shore before; and having made this observation, I went abroad about my

harvest work with the more composure.

As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the

westward I saw them all take boat and row (or paddle as we call it)

away. I should have observed, that for an hour or more before they went

off they were dancing, and I could easily discern their postures and

gestures by my glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation,

but that they were stark naked, and had not the least covering upon

them; but whether they were men or women I could not distinguish.

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my

shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by my side

without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make went away

to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and as

soon as I got thither, which was not in less than two hours (for I

could not go quickly, being so loaded with arms as I was), I perceived

there had been three canoes more of the savages at that place; and

looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over

for the main. This was a dreadful sight to me, especially as, going

down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal

work they had been about had left behind it—viz. the blood, the bones,

and part of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by those

wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at

the sight, that I now began to premeditate the destruction of the next

that I saw there, let them be whom or how many soever. It seemed

evident to me that the visits which they made thus to this island were

not very frequent, for it was above fifteen months before any more of

them came on shore there again—that is to say, I neither saw them nor

any footsteps or signals of them in all that time; for as to the rainy

seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far.

Yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of the constant

apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise: from whence I

observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the

suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation

or those apprehensions.

During all this time I was in a murdering humour, and spent most of my

hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving how to

circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see

them—especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time,

into two parties; nor did I consider at all that if I killed one

party—suppose ten or a dozen—I was still the next day, or week, or

month, to kill another, and so another, even _ad infinitum_, till I

should be, at length, no less a murderer than they were in being

man-eaters—and perhaps much more so. I spent my days now in great

perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one day or

other fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at

any time venture abroad, it was not without looking around me with the

greatest care and caution imaginable. And now I found, to my great

comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock or herd of

goats, for I durst not upon any account fire my gun, especially near

that side of the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm

the savages; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them

come again with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them in a few

days, and then I knew what to expect. However, I wore out a year and

three months more before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I

found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true they might have

been there once or twice; but either they made no stay, or at least I

did not see them; but in the month of May, as near as I could

calculate, and in my four-and-twentieth year, I had a very strange

encounter with them; of which in its place.

The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or sixteen months’

interval was very great; I slept unquietly, dreamed always frightful

dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night. In the day

great troubles overwhelmed my mind; and in the night I dreamed often of

killing the savages and of the reasons why I might justify doing it.

But to waive all this for a while. It was in the middle of May, on the

sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would

reckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was on the

sixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with

a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was

after it. I knew not what was the particular occasion of it, but as I

was reading in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about

my present condition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as I

thought, fired at sea. This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of a

different nature from any I had met with before; for the notions this

put into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in the

greatest haste imaginable; and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the

middle place of the rock, and pulled it after me; and mounting it the

second time, got to the top of the hill the very moment that a flash of

fire bid me listen for a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half

a minute I heard; and by the sound, knew that it was from that part of

the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately

considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had

some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these for

signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had the presence of mind at

that minute to think, that though I could not help them, it might be

that they might help me; so I brought together all the dry wood I could

get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the

hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and, though the wind blew

very hard, yet it burned fairly out; so that I was certain, if there

was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it. And no doubt they

did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and

after that several others, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire

all night long, till daybreak: and when it was broad day, and the air

cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of

the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish—no, not

with my glass: the distance was so great, and the weather still

something hazy also; at least, it was so out at sea.

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did

not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and

being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my

hand, and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I

had formerly been carried away by the current; and getting up there,

the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to

my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those

concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which

rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of

counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the

most desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my

life. Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s destruction; for

it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge,

and the rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in

the night, the wind blowing hard at ENE. Had they seen the island, as I

must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have

endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their

boat; but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as

I imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined

that upon seeing my light they might have put themselves into their

boat, and endeavoured to make the shore: but that the sea running very

high, they might have been cast away. Other times I imagined that they

might have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways;

particularly by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many

times obliged men to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and

sometimes to throw it overboard with their own hands. Other times I

imagined they had some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the

signals of distress they made, had taken them up, and carried them off.

Other times I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and

being hurried away by the current that I had been formerly in, were

carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery

and perishing: and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of

starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another.

As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was

in, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men,

and pity them; which had still this good effect upon my side, that it

gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily

and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of

two ships’ companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the

world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to

observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into

any condition so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something

or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances

than our own. Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could

not so much as see room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make

it rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish

there, except the possibility only of their being taken up by another

ship in company; and this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw

not the least sign or appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain,

by any possible energy of words, what a strange longing I felt in my

soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus: “Oh that there had

been but one or two, nay, or but one soul saved out of this ship, to

have escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion, one

fellow-creature, to have spoken to me and to have conversed with!” In

all the time of my solitary life I never felt so earnest, so strong a

desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at

the want of it.

There are some secret springs in the affections which, when they are

set a-going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yet

rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion

carries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eager

embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Such

were these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe

I repeated the words, “Oh that it had been but one!” a thousand times;

and my desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my

hands would clinch together, and my fingers would press the palms of my

hands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand I should have

crushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would strike

together, and set against one another so strong, that for some time I

could not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these things,

and the reason and manner of them. All I can do is to describe the

fact, which was even surprising to me when I found it, though I knew

not from whence it proceeded; it was doubtless the effect of ardent

wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realising the comfort

which the conversation of one of my fellow-Christians would have been

to me. But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both,

forbade it; for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never

knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only the

affliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on

shore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had no

clothes on but a seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen

drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to

guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pockets but two

pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe—the last was to me of ten times more

value than the first.

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to

this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that might

be useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the

possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board,

whose life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life,

comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my

heart that I could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in

my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God’s

providence, I thought the impression was so strong upon my mind that it

could not be resisted—that it must come from some invisible direction,

and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.

Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,

prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great

pot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I had

still a great deal of that left), and a basket of raisins; and thus,

loading myself with everything necessary. I went down to my boat, got

the water out of her, got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and

then went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag of rice,

the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot of

water, and about two dozen of small loaves, or barley cakes, more than

before, with a bottle of goat’s milk and a cheese; all which with great

labour and sweat I carried to my boat; and praying to God to direct my

voyage, I put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore,

came at last to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side.

And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or

not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on

both sides of the island at a distance, and which were very terrible to

me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my

heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either

of those currents, I should be carried a great way out to sea, and

perhaps out of my reach or sight of the island again; and that then, as

my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I should

be inevitably lost.

These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my

enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore,

I stepped out, and sat down upon a rising bit of ground, very pensive

and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was

musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come

on; upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this,

presently it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest piece of

ground I could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide

or currents lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if

I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way

home, with the same rapidity of the currents. This thought was no

sooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill which

sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a

clear view of the currents or sets of the tide, and which way I was to

guide myself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of ebb set

out close by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood

set in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing to

do but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and I

should do well enough.

Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out

with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in my

canoe, under the watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a

little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the

current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate; and

yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had done

before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a

strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the

wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was a dismal

sight to look at; the ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck

fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her

were beaten to pieces by the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in

the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast

were brought by the board—that is to say, broken short off; but her

bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. When I came

close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped

and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to

me. I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead with hunger and

thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured it like a

ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow; I then

gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would have

let him, he would have burst himself. After this I went on board; but

the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or

forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I

concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being

in a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually over her, that the

men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant

rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water.

Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor

any goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There

were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay

lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see;

but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I

believe belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into the

boat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship

been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am persuaded I might have

made a good voyage; for by what I found in those two chests I had room

to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may

guess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos

Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the

Brazils to the Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to

Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at

that time, to anybody; and what became of the crew I then knew not.

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about

twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There

were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about

four pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion for

them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel

and tongs, which I wanted extremely, as also two little brass kettles,

a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo,

and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again—and the

same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island again,

weary and fatigued to the last degree. I reposed that night in the boat

and in the morning I resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave,

and not carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all

my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask of

liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at the

Brazils; and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came to open the

chests, I found several things of great use to me—for example, I found

in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled

with cordial waters, fine and very good; the bottles held about three

pints each, and were tipped with silver. I found two pots of very good

succades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on the top that the

salt-water had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water

had spoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to

me; and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and

coloured neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being

exceedingly refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when

I came to the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of

pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in

one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some

small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a

pound. In the other chest were some clothes, but of little value; but,

by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner’s mate;

though there was no powder in it, except two pounds of fine glazed

powder, in three flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their

fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this

voyage that was of any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner

of occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet, and I would

have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and

stockings, which were things I greatly wanted, but had had none on my

feet for many years. I had, indeed, got two pair of shoes now, which I

took off the feet of two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I

found two pair more in one of the chests, which were very welcome to

me; but they were not like our English shoes, either for ease or

service, being rather what we call pumps than shoes. I found in this

seaman’s chest about fifty pieces of eight, in rials, but no gold: I

supposed this belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed to

belong to some officer. Well, however, I lugged this money home to my

cave, and laid it up, as I had done that before which I had brought

from our own ship; but it was a great pity, as I said, that the other

part of this ship had not come to my share; for I am satisfied I might

have loaded my canoe several times over with money; and, thought I, if

I ever escape to England, it might lie here safe enough till I come

again and fetch it.