http://www.arcamax.com/fiction/b-1103-6
Robinson Crusoe
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so I
could not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy view I had
of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue
a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the
thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest
gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be
consistent with life and a state of health in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this part of
my story. You may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in
the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my
plantation, I had not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among
the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port; and that, in my
discourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of my
two voyages to the coast of Guinea: the manner of trading with the
negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for
trifles - such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of
glass, and the like - not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants'
teeth, &c., but negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in great
numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads,
but especially to that part which related to the buying of negroes,
which was a trade at that time, not only not far entered into, but, as
far as it was, had been carried on by assientos, or permission of the
kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock: so
that few negroes were bought, and these excessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of my
acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of
them came to me next morning, and told me they had been musing very
much upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night, and they
came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining me to
secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to
Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and were
straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade
that could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the
negroes when they came home, so they desired to make but one voyage,
to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their
own plantations; and, in a word, the question was whether I would go
their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the
coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should have my equal share
of the negroes, without providing any part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to
any one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his own to
look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable,
and with a good stock upon it; but for me, that was thus entered and
established, and had nothing to do but to go on as I had begun, for
three or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred
pounds from England; and who in that time, and with that little
addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four
thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too - for me to think of
such a voyage was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such
circumstances could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the
offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my father'
good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go with
all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in
my absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I
miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my
plantation and effects in case of my death, making the captain of the
ship that had saved my life, as before, my universal heir, but
obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will;
one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped
to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to
keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to have
looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought
to have done and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away
from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a
thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with
all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect
particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy
rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being fitted out,
and the cargo furnished, and all things done, as by agreement, by my
partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1st
September 1659, being the same day eight years that I went from my
father and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their
authority, and the fool to my own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six
guns and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. We
had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit
for our trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells,
and other trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives,
scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the
northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the
African coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern
latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of course in those days. We
had very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way upon our own
coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augustino; from whence,
keeping further off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if
we were bound for the isle Fernando de Noronha, holding our course
N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on the east. In this course we
passed the line in about twelve days' time, and were, by our last
observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes northern latitude,
when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite out of our
knowledge. It began from the south-east, came about to the
north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew in
such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do
nothing but drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us
whither fate and the fury of the winds directed; and, during these
twelve days, I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed
up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our
men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed overboard.
About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made
an observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about
eleven degrees north latitude, but that he was twenty-two degrees of
longitude difference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he
was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the
river Amazon, toward that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the
Great River; and began to consult with me what course he should take,
for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled, and he was going
directly back to the coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the
sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited
country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle of
the Caribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for
Barbadoes; which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the
Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about
fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to
the coast of Africa without some assistance both to our ship and to
ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by W.,
in order to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped for
relief. But our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in the
latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon
us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and
drove us so out of the way of all human commerce, that, had all our
lives been saved as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being
devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men
early in the morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner run out
of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world
we were, than the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment her motion
being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner that we
expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were
immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the
very foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like condition to
describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances.
We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven
- whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited.
As the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at
first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes
without breaking into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle,
should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon one
another, and expecting death every moment, and every man, accordingly,
preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing more for
us to do in this. That which was our present comfort, and all the
comfort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did
not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to
expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and
had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we
could. We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was
first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next
place she broke away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea; so
there was no hope from her. We had another boat on board, but how to
get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing. However, there was no
time to debate, for we fancied that the ship would break in pieces
every minute, and some told us she was actually broken already.
In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and
with the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's
side; and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being
eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the
storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon
the shore, and might be well called DEN WILD ZEE, as the Dutch call
the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly that
the sea went so high that the boat could not live, and that we should
be inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor if we had
could we have done anything with it; so we worked at the oar towards
the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for
we all knew that when the boat came near the shore she would be dashed
in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed
our souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us
towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own hands,
pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we
knew not. The only hope that could rationally give us the least
shadow of expectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, or the
mouth of some river, where by great chance we might have run our boat
in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water.
But there was nothing like this appeared; but as we made nearer and
nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we
reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us,
and plainly bade us expect the COUP DE GRACE. It took us with such a
fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from
the boat as from one another, gave us no time to say, "O God!" for we
were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having
driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and
having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry,
but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of
mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland
than I expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on
towards the land as fast as I could before another wave should return
and take me up again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it;
for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as
furious as an enemy, which I had no means or strength to contend with:
my business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water if
I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot
myself towards the shore, if possible, my greatest concern now being
that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when
it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it gave back
towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty
feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a
mighty force and swiftness towards the shore - a very great way; but I
held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my
might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt
myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and
hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not
two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me
greatly, gave me breath, and new courage. I was covered again with
water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the
water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck forward against
the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood
still a few moments to recover breath, and till the waters went from
me, and then took to my heels and ran with what strength I had further
towards the shore. But neither would this deliver me from the fury of
the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and twice more I was
lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before, the shore being
very flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for the sea
having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me,
against a piece of rock, and that with such force, that it left me
senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow
taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my
body; and had it returned again immediately, I must have been
strangled in the water; but I recovered a little before the return of
the waves, and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my
breath, if possible, till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were
not so high as at first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the
wave abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near
the shore that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so
swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run I took, I got to
the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of
the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and quite
out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God
that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was some minutes
before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to
express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul
are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I
do not wonder now at the custom, when a malefactor, who has the halter
about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a
reprieve brought to him - I say, I do not wonder that they bring a
surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of
it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart
and overwhelm him.
"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole being,
as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making
a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting
upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be
one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them
afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap,
and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of
the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and
considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition,
I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I was in, and what
was next to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in
a word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes to
shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither
did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or
being devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly
afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and kill
any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other
creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a word, I had
nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in
a box. This was all my provisions; and this threw me into such
terrible agonies of mind, that for a while I ran about like a madman.
Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy heart to consider what
would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, as
at night they always come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to get up
into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me,
and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what
death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked
about a furlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water
to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a
little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the tree,
and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so that if I
should sleep I might not fall. And having cut me a short stick, like
a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging; and having been
excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as,
I believe, few could have done in my condition, and found myself more
refreshed with it than, I think, I ever was on such an occasion.