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13 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books Library

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Chapter thirteen, Wreck of a Spanish Ship. I was now in the twenty
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third year of my residence in this island, and was so naturalized to the
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place and the manner of living that could I but have enjoyed the certainty that
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no savages would come to the place to disturb me. I could have been
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content for capitulating to spend the rest of my time there, even to the
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last moment till I had laid me down and died like the old goat in
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the cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions and amusements, which
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made the time pass a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before.
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First I had taught my pal, as I noted before, to speak,
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and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain that
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it was very pleasant to me. And he lived with me no less than
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six and twenty years. How long he might have lived afterwards, I know
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not, though I know they have a notion in the Brazils that they live
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one hundred years. My dog was a pleasant and loving companion to me for
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no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old
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age, as for my cats. They multiplied, as I have observed,
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to that degree that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first to
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keep them from devouring me and all I had. But at length, when
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the two old ones I brought with me were gone, and after some time
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continually driving them from me and letting them have no provision with me, they
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all ran wild into the woods, except two or three favorites, which I
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kept saying, and who's young? When they had any, I always drowned,
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and these were part of my family. Besides these, I always kept
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two or three household kids about me, whom I taught two feet out of
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my hand. And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well and
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would all call Robin Crusoe. But not like my first, nor indeed did
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I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him.
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I had also several tame sea fowls whose name I knew, not that I
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caught upon the shore and cut their wings, and the little steaks which I
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had planted before my castle wall, being now grown up to a good thick
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rove. These fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there, which
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was very agreeable to me, so that, as I said above, I
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began to be very well contented with the life I led, if I could
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have secured from the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise directed.
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And it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my story
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to make this just observation from it. How frequently, in the course of
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our lives, the evil, which in itself we seek most to shun,
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and which when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us,
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is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we
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can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could give
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many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life, but in nothing
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was it more particularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary
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residence in this island. It was now the month of December, as I
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said above, in my twenty third year, and this being the southern solstice
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for winter I can call it was the particular time of my harvest, and
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required me to be pretty much abroad in the fields. When going out early
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in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with
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seeing a light of some fire upon the shore at a distance from me of
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about two miles, toward that part of the island where I had observed some
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savages had been as before, and not on the other side, But to
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my great affliction, it was on my side of the island. I was
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indeed terribly surprised, and stopped short within my grove at the sight, not
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daring to go out lest I might be surprised. And yet I had no
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more peace within from the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in rambling
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over the eye should find my corn standing, or cut, or any of
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my works or improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were people in the
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place, and would never rest then till they had found me out and this
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extremity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder after
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me, and made all things without look as wild and natural as I could.
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Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defense.
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I loaded all my cannon as I called them, that is to say,
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my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pistols,
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and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp, not forgetting to commend
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myself seriously to the divine protection and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me
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out of the hands of the barbarians. I continued in this posture about two
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hours and began to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no spies
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to send out. After sitting a while longer and musing what I should do
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in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer,
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so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill where there was a
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flat place as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder after me,
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I set it up again and mounted the top of the hill, and pulling
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out my prospective glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me
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down flat on my belly on the ground and began to look for the place
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I presently found. There were no less than nine naked savages sitting round a
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small fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had no
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need of at the weather being extremely hot. But as I supposed to dress,
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some of their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them,
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whether alive or dead, I could not tell. They had two canoes
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with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore, and as it
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was then ebb of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the return
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of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what
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confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side of
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the island and so near to me. But when I considered their coming must
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be always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to be more
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sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all
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the time of the flood, all the time of the tide, if they
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were not on shore before. And having made this observation, I went abroad
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about my harvest work with the more composure as I expected. So it proved,
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for as soon as the tide made to the westward, I saw them
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all take boat and row or paddle as we call it away. I should
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have observed that for an hour or more before they went off, they were
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dancing, and I could discern their postures and gestures by my glass. I
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could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they were stark,
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naked and had not the least covering upon them, but whether they were men
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or women I could not distinguish. As soon as I saw them shipped and
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gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols in my
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girdle, and my great sword by my side without a scabbard, and with
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all the speed I was able to make, went away to the hill where
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I had discovered the first appearance of all. And as soon as I got
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thither, which was not in less than two hours, for I could not
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go quickly, being so loaded with arms as I was, I perceived there
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had been three canoes more of the savages at that place, and looking out
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farther I saw they were all at sea together making over for the main.
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This was a dreadful sight to me, especially as going down to the shore
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I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been about
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had left behind it. That is, the blood, the bones, and
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part of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment
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and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the site that I now
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began to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there. Let them
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be whom or how many. Soever, it seemed evident to me that the
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visits which they made thus to this island were not very frequent, for it
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was above fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there. Again,
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that is to say, I neither saw them, nor any footsteps or
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signals of them, in all that time. For as to the rainy seasons,
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then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far
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yet. All this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the constant apprehensions of
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their coming upon me by surprise. From whence I observe that the expectation of
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evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to
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shake off that expectation or those apprehension. During all this time I was in
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a murdering humor, and spent most of my hours, which should have been
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better employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the very next
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time I should see them, especially if they should be divided, as they
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were the last time, into two parties. Nor did I consider at all
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that if I killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I was
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still the next day or week or a month to kill another, and so
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another, even odd infinitum, till I should be at length no less a
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murderer than they were in being man eaters, and perhaps much more so.
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I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that
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I should one day or other fall into the hands of these merciless creatures.
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And if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking
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around me with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now I found,
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to my great comfort how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock
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or herd of goats for I durst not upon any account fire my gun,
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especially near that side of the island where they usually came, lest I should
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alarm the savages. And if they had fled from me, now I was
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sure to have them come again, with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with
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them in a few days, and then I knew what to expect. However,
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I wore out a year and three months more before I ever saw any
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more of the savages, and then I found them again. As I shall
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soon observe, it is true they might have been there once or twice,
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but either they made no stay, or at least I did not see them.
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But in the month of May, as far as I could calculate,
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and in my four and twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with
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them, of which in its place, the perturbation of my mind during this
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fifteen or sixteen months interval was very great. I slept unquietly, dreamed always
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frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night. In
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the day, great troubles overwhelmed my mind, and in the night I dreamed
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often of killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might justify doing
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it. But to waive all of this for a while. It was in
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the middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well
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as my poor wooden calendar would reckon before I marked all upon the posts.
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Still, I say it was on the sixteenth of May that it blew a
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very great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and
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thunder, and a very foul night. It was after it I knew not
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what was the particular occasion of it. But as I was reading in the
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Bible and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present condition, I was
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surprised with the noise of a gun, as I thought fired at sea.
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This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of different nature from any
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I had met with before, for the notions this put into my thoughts were
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quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and
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in a trice, clapped my ladder in the middle place of the rock,
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pulled it up after me, and mounting it the second time, got to
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the top of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me
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listen for a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half a minute
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I heard, and by the sound knew that it was from that part of
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the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately
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considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some
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comrade or some other ship in company, and fired these for signals of distress
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and to obtain help. I had the presence of mine at that minute to
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think that though I could not help them, it might be that they might
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help me. So I brought together all the dry wood I could get at
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hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon
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the hill. The wood was dry and blazed freely, and though the wind
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blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out, so that I was certain
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if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it,
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and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever my fire blazed
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up, I heard another gun, and after that several others, all from
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the same quarter. I plied my fire all night long till daybreak, and
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when it was broad day and the air cleared up, I saw something at
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a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail
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or a hull, I could not distinguish, no, not with my glass.
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The distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy. Also,
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at least it was so out at sea. I looked frequently at it
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all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move. So I
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presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor, and, being eager,
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you may be sure to be satisfied. I took my gun in my hand
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and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had
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formerly been carried away by the current, And getting up there, the weather
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by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see to my great sorrow,
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the wreck of a ship cast away in the night, upon those concealed
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rocks which I found when I was out in my boat, and which rocks,
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as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of
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counter system, or eddy where the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate,
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hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life. Thus,
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but as one man's safety is another man's destruction. For it seems these
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men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and the rocks
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being wholly underwater, had been driven upon them in the night, and the
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wind blowing hard at east northeast. Had they seen the island, as I
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must necessarily suppose they did not, They must, as I thought, have
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endeavored to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat. But
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their firing of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined,
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my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First I imagined that upon
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seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat and endeavored to
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make the shore, but that the sea running very high, they might have
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been cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have lost their boat
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before, as might be the case in many ways, particularly by the breaking
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of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliged men to stave or
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take to pieces their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard with their own
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hands. Other times I imagined that they had some other ship or ships in
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company, who, upon the signals of distress they made, had taken them
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up and carried them off. Other times I fancied they were all gone off
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to see in their boat and being hurried away by the current that I had
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formerly been, and were carried out into the great ocean, where there was
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nothing but misery and perishing, And that perhaps they might by this time think
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of starving and of being in a condition to eat one another. As all
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these were but conjectures at best. So in the condition I was in,
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I could do no more than look upon the misery of the poor men and
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pity them, which had still this good effect upon my side, that it
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gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so
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happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition, and that of two
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ships companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world. Not
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one life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe that
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it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition so
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low, or any misery so great. But we may see something or other
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to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own.
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Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not
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so much as see room to suppose any were saved. Nothing could make it
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rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there,
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except the possibility only of their being taken up by another ship in company.
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And this was but mere possibility, indeed, for I saw not the
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least sign or appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain by any possible
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energy of words, what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon the
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sight breaking out. Sometimes thus, oh, that there had been but one
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or two, nay, or but one soul saved out of the ship to
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have escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion, one
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fellow creature, to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with In
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all the time of my solitary life, I never felt so earnest, so
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strong a desire. After the society of my fellow creatures, or so deep
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a regret at the want of it. There are some secret springs in the
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affections which, when they are set agoing by some object in view, or
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though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power of
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imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity, to such violent,
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eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable.
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Such were these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe
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I repeated the words, oh, that it had been but one a thousand
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times, and my desires were so moved by it that when I spoke the
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words, my hands would clench together, and my fingers would press the palms
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of my hands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my
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hand, I would have crushed it involuntarily, and the teeth in my head
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would strike together and set against one another so strong that for some time I
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could not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these things and the reason
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and manner of them. All I can do is to describe the fact,
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which was even surprising to me when I found it, though I knew not
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from whence it proceeded. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes and of
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strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfort which the conversation of one
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of my fellow Christians would have been to me. But it was not to
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be. Either their fate for mine, or both forbade it. For till
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the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whether any
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were saved out of that ship or no, and had only the affliction some
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days after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore at the
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end of the island, which was next the wreck. He had no clothes
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on but a seaman's westcotte, a pair of open kneed linen drawers, and
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a blue linen shirt, but nothing to direct me so much as to guess
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what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pockets but two pieces
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of eight and a tobacco pipe. The last was to me of ten times
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more value than the first. It was now calm, and I had a
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great mind to venture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but
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I might find something on board that might be useful to me. But that
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did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that there might be yet
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some living creature on board whose life I might not only save, but might,
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by saving his life, comfort my own to the last degree. And
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this thought clung so to my heart that I could not be quiet night or
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day, but I must venture in my boat on board this wreck, and
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committing the rest to God's providence. I thought the impression was so strong upon
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my mind that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some
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invisible direction, and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not
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go under the power of this impression. I hastened back to my castle,
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prepared everything for my voyage. Took a quantity of bread, a great pot
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of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rhemfor I
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still had a great deal of that left, and a basket of raisins.
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And thus loading myself with everything necessary, I went down to my boat,
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got the water out of her, got her afloat, loaded all my cargo
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in her, and then went home again for more. My second cargo was
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a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for
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a shade, another large pot of water, and about two dozen of small
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loaves or barley cakes more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and
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a cheese, all which with great labor and sweat I carried to my boat,
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and, praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out,
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and, rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, came at last to
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the utmost point of the island, on the northeast side. And now I
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was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or not to
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venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of
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the island at a distance, and which were very terrible to me from the
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remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to
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fail me. For I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those
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currents, I should be carried a great way out to sea, and perhaps
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out of my reach or sight of the island again, And that then,
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as my boat was so small, if any little gale of wind should rise,
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I should be inevitably lost. These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I
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began to give over my enterprise, And having hauled my boat into a little
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creek, on the shore. I stepped out and sat down upon a rising
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bit of ground, very pensive and anxious between fear and desire about my voyage.
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When as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned
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and the flood come on, upon which my going was impracticable for so many
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hours. Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I should go up
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to the highest piece of ground I could find and observe if I could how
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the sets of the tide or currents lay when the flood came in, that
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I might judge whether if I was driven one way out, I might not
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expect to be driven another way home with the same rapidity of the currents.
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This thought was no sooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a
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little hill which sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had
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a clear view of the currents or sets of the tide, and which way
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I was to guide myself in my return. Here I found that as the
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current of Ebbs set out close by the south point of the island, so
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the current of the flood set in close by the shore of the north side,
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and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north side
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of the island in my return, and I should do well enough. Encouraged
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by this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out with the first
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of the tide, and reposing myself for the night in my canoe under the
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watch coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a little out
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to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the current
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which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate, and yet
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did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had done before,
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so as to take from me all government of the boat. But having
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a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for
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the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it.
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It was a dismal sight to look at the ship, which by its building
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was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern
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and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea, and as her
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forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence,
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her mainmast and foremast were brought by the board, that is to say,
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broken short off. But her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow
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appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her,
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who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried, and as soon as
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I called him, jumped into the sea to come to me. I took
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him into the boat, but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst.
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I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured it like a
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ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow. I then gave
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the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would have let
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him, he would have burst himself. After this I went on board,
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but the first sight I met was two men drowned in the cook room or
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forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I concluded,
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as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck it, being in
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a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually over her, that
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the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant
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rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been underwater.
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Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life,
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nor any goods that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water.
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There were some casts of liquor, whether wine or brandy. I knew
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not which lay lower in the hold, and which the water being ebbed out,
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I could see, but they were too big to meddle with. I
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saw several chests, which I believe belonged to some of the seamen, and
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I got two of them into my boat without examining what was in them.
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Had the stern of the ship fixed and the four part broken off, I
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am persuaded I might have made a good voyage, for by what I found
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in those two chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great
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deal of wealth on board, and if I may guess from the course she
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steered, she must have been bound from Buenos Aires or the Rio de la
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Plata in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havana
32:28
in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. She had,
32:32
no doubt a great treasure in her, but of no use at that time
32:37
to anybody. And what became of the crew I then knew not. I
32:46
found beside those chests a little cask full of liquor of about twenty gallons,
32:51
which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There were several muskets in
32:55
the cabin, and a great powder horn with about four pounds of powder in
33:00
it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion for them, so
33:06
I left them, but took the powder horn. I took a fire shovel
33:09
and tongs, which I wanted extremely as also two little brass kettles, a
33:15
copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo and
33:21
the dog, I came away the tide, beginning to make home again,
33:25
and the same evening about an hour within night I reached the island again.
33:30
Weary and fatigued to the last degree, I reposed that night in the boat,
33:37
and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I had got in my
33:40
new cave, and not carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself,
33:46
I got all my cargo on board and began to examine the particulars.
33:52
The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not
33:57
such as we had at the brazils, and in a word, not at
34:00
all good. But when I came to open the chests I found several things
34:06
of great use to me. For example, I found in one a fine
34:10
case of bottles of an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine
34:16
and very good. The bottles held about three pints each and were tipped with
34:22
silver. I found two pots of very good soucades or sweetmeats, so fastened
34:30
also on the top that the salt water had not hurt them, and two
34:34
more of the same which the water had spoiled. I found some very good
34:38
shirts, which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen and a
34:43
half of white linen handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths. The former were also very welcome,
34:50
being exceedingly refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this,
34:55
when I came to the till. In the chest, I found three
35:00
great bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all,
35:06
and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six the
35:08
balloons of gold, in some small bars or wedges of gold. I suppose
35:15
they might all weigh near a pound. In the other chest there were some
35:21
clothes, but of little value, but by the circumstances it must have belonged
35:28
to the gunner's mate, though there was no powder in it, except two
35:32
pounds of fine clazed powder in three flasts kept, I suppose, for charging
35:39
their falling pieces on occasion. Upon the whole I got very little by this
35:45
voyage that was of any use to me. For as to the money,
35:51
I had no manner of occasion for it. It was to me as the
35:57
dirt under my feet. And I would have given it all for three or
36:00
four pair of English shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
36:07
but had had none on my feet for many years. I had indeed got
36:13
two pair of shoes now, which I took off the feet of the two
36:17
drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two pair more
36:22
and one of the chests, which were very welcome to me. But they
36:27
were not like our English shoes, either for ease or service, being rather
36:32
what we call pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fifty
36:38
pieces of eight in rial's, but no gold. I suppose this belonged to
36:46
a poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some officer.
36:52
Well. However, I lugged this money home to my cave, as I
36:59
had done that before, which I had brought from our own ship. But
37:05
it was a great pity as I said that the other part of this ship
37:08
had not come to my share, for I am satisfied. I might have
37:14
loaded my canoe several times over with money, and thought, if I ever
37:20
escaped to England, it might lie here safe enough till I come again and
37:23
fetch it. End of Chapter thirteen.