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Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Section 12 of 41 - Table of Contents
When this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced, with a
turf wall raised up close to it, I perceived myself that if any
people were to come on shore there, they would not perceive
anything like a habitation; and it was very well I did so, as may
be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.

During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day
when the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries in these
walks of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found
a kind of wild pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree,
but rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and taking
some young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so;
but when they grew older they flew away, which perhaps was at first
for want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give them; however,
I frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which
were very good meat.  And now, in the managing my household
affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I thought at
first it was impossible for me to make; as, indeed, with some of
them it was: for instance, I could never make a cask to be hooped.
I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before; but I could
never arrive at the capacity of making one by them, though I spent
many weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join the
staves so true to one another as to make them hold water; so I gave
that also over.  In the next place, I was at a great loss for
candles; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally
by seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed.  I remembered the
lump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African adventure;
but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I
had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made
of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some
oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a
clear, steady light, like a candle.  In the middle of all my
labours it happened that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag
which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the
feeding of poultry - not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose,
when the ship came from Lisbon.  The little remainder of corn that
had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothing
in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag
for some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I divided
it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks
of corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock.

It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I
threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so much as
remembering that I had thrown anything there, when, about a month
after, or thereabouts, I saw some few stalks of something green
shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I
had not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when,
after a little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears come
out, which were perfect green barley, of the same kind as our
European - nay, as our English barley.

It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my
thoughts on this occasion.  I had hitherto acted upon no religious
foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my
head, nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallen
me otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases
God, without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in
these things, or His order in governing events for the world.  But
after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not
proper for corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there,
it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest that God had
miraculously caused His grain to grow without any help of seed
sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that
wild, miserable place.

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes,
and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should
happen upon my account; and this was the more strange to me,
because I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,
some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice,
and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa when I was
ashore there.

I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my
support, but not doubting that there was more in the place, I went
all over that part of the island, where I had been before, peering
in every corner, and under every rock, to see for more of it, but I
could not find any.  At last it occurred to my thoughts that I
shook a bag of chickens' meat out in that place; and then the
wonder began to cease; and I must confess my religious thankfulness
to God's providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering that
all this was nothing but what was common; though I ought to have
been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if
it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence to
me, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn
should remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest,
as if it had been dropped from heaven; as also, that I should throw
it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a
high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it
anywhere else at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn,
I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some
quantity sufficient to supply me with bread.  But it was not till
the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this
corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall say
afterwards, in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the first
season by not observing the proper time; for I sowed it just before
the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it
would have done; of which in its place.

Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks
of rice, which I preserved with the same care and for the same use,
or to the same purpose - to make me bread, or rather food; for I
found ways to cook it without baking, though I did that also after
some time.

But to return to my Journal.

I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall
done; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go into
it, not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might
be no sign on the outside of my habitation.

APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the
top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside.
This was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough,
and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first
mount my wall.

The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had all
my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed.  The case was
thus: As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at the
entrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a most
dreadful, surprising thing indeed; for all on a sudden I found the
earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the
edge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set up in
the cave cracked in a frightful manner.  I was heartily scared; but
thought nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking that
the top of my cave was fallen in, as some of it had done before:
and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my ladder,
and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall for
fear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll down
upon me.  I had no sooner stepped do ground, than I plainly saw it
was a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three
times at about eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks as
would have overturned the strongest building that could be supposed
to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock
which stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down with
such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life.  I perceived
also the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believe
the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.

I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the
like, nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one
dead or stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach
sick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling
of the rock awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from the
stupefied condition I was in, filled me with horror; and I thought
of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my
household goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my very
soul within me a second time.

After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I
began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over my
wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the
ground greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do.
All this while I had not the least serious religious thought;
nothing but the common "Lord have mercy upon me!" and when it was
over that went away too.

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as if
it would rain.  Soon after that the wind arose by little and
little, so that in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadful
hurricane; the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam and
froth; the shore was covered with the breach of the water, the
trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was.  This
held about three hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours
more it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard.  All this
while I sat upon the ground very much terrified and dejected; when
on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rain
being the consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was
spent and over, and I might venture into my cave again.  With this
thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping to
persuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent.  But the rain was
so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I
was forced to go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy,
for fear it should fall on my head.  This violent rain forced me to
a new work - viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, like
a sink, to let the water go out, which would else have flooded my
cave.  After I had been in my cave for some time, and found still
no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be more
composed.  And now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it
very much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum;
which, however, I did then and always very sparingly, knowing I
could have no more when that was gone.  It continued raining all
that night and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir
abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think of what I
had best do; concluding that if the island was subject to these
earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I must
consider of building a little hut in an open place which I might
surround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure
from wild beasts or men; for I concluded, if I stayed where I was,
I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.

With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place
where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the
hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall
upon my tent; and I spent the two next days, being the 19th and
20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in
quiet; and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence
was almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about, and saw how
everything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and
how safe from danger, it made me very loath to remove.  In the
meantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of
time for me to do this, and that I must be contented to venture
where I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured
it so as to remove to it.  So with this resolution I composed
myself for a time, and resolved that I would go to work with all
speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c., in a circle,
as before, and set my tent up in it when it was finished; but that
I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, and fit
to remove.  This was the 21st.

APRIL 22. - The next morning I begin to consider of means to put
this resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about my
tools.  I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we
carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with much
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of
notches, and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn
it and grind my tools too.  This cost me as much thought as a
statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a
judge upon the life and death of a man.  At length I contrived a
wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might have
both my hands at liberty.  NOTE. - I had never seen any such thing
in England, or at least, not to take notice how it was done, though
since I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, my
grindstone was very large and heavy.  This machine cost me a full
week's work to bring it to perfection.

APRIL 28, 29. - These two whole days I took up in grinding my
tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.

APRIL 30. - Having perceived my bread had been low a great while,
now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a
day, which made my heart very heavy.

MAY 1. - In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tide
being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary,
and it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small
barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which
were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the
wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water
than it used to do.  I examined the barrel which was driven on
shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it had
taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone; however,
I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon the
sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for
more.
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