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

• Chapter seven, Agricultural Experience. I had now been in this unhappy island above ten months. All possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me, and I firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place. Having now secured my habitation, as I thought fully to my mind, I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and to see what other productions I might find, which I yet knew nothing of. It was on the fifteenth of July that I began to take a more particular survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first, where as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore. I found, after I came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any high, and that it was no more than a little brook of running water, very fresh and good. But this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it, at least not enough to run in any stream, so as it could be perceived. On the banks of this brook, I found many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plains smooth and covered with grass, and on the rising parts of them. Next to the higher grounds, where the water, as might be supposed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of tobacco, green and growing to a great and very strong stalk. There were divers other plants which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might perhaps have virtues of their own, which I could not find out. I searched for the cassavar root, which the Indians in all that climate make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw large plants of aloes, but did not understand them. I saw several sugar canes, but wild and for want of cultivation imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came back musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover, but could bring it to no conclusion, For in short, I had made so little observation while I was in the Brazils that I knew little of the plants in the field, at least very little that might serve to any purpose. Now in my distress, the next day, the sixteenth, I went up the same way again, and after going somewhat for a seas than I had gone the day before. I found the brook and the savannahs cease, and the country become more woody than before. In this part I found different fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees. The vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was exceeding glad of them. But I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them, remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen who were slaves there by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. But I found an excellent use for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept, which I thought would be as indeed they were wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had. I spent all that evening there and went back to my habitation, which by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from home. In the night I took my first contrivance and got up in a tree, where I slept well, and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery, traveling nearly four miles, as I might judge by the length of the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north side of me. At the end of this march I came to an opening where the country seemed to descend to the west, and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is due east, and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, everything being in a constant verdure or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden. I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure, though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to think that this was all my own, that I was king and lord of all this country indefensibly, and had a right of possession, and if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange and lemon and citron trees, but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit at least not then. However, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome, and I mixed their juice afterwards with water and made it very wholesome and very cool and refreshing. I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home, and I resolved to lay up a store as well of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I knew was approaching. In order to do this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place, and taking a few of each with me, I traveled homewards, resolving to come again and bring a bag or sack, or what I can make to carry the rest home. Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came home. So I must now call my tent in my cave my home. But before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled, the richness of the fruit and the weight of the juice. Having broken them and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing. As to the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few. The next day, being the nineteenth, I went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was surprised when coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine, when I gathered them, to find them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this, I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts which had done this, but what they were I knew not. However, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight. I took another course, for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes and hung them trees that they might cure and dry in the sun. And as for the limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand under. When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on that side of the water and the wood, and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole I began to consider of removing my habitation and looking out for a place equally safe as where now I was situated, if possible, in that pleasant, fruitful part of the island. This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceedingly fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me. But when I came to a nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the seaside where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and by the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place. And though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods and the center of the island was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable but impossible, and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove. However, I was so enamored of this place that I spent much of my time there for the whole of the remaining part of the month of July, And though upon second thoughts I resolved not to move, yet I built me a little kind of a bower and surrounded it at a distance with strong fence, being a double hedge as high as I could reach, well staked and filled between with brushwood. And here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always going over it with a ladder, so that I found see. Now I had my country house and my seacoast house. And this work took me up to the beginning of August. I had but newly finished my fence and begun to enjoy my labor when the rains came on and made me stick close to my first habitation. For though I had made me a tent like the other with a piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat. Into when the rains were extraordinary about the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower and began to enjoy myself. The third of August, I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent, good raisins of the sun. So I began to take them down from the trees. And it was very happy that I did so, for the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food, for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them down and carried the most of them home to my cave. And then it began to rain, and from hints, which was the fourteenth of August, it rained more or less every day till the middle of October, and sometimes so violently that I could not stir out of my cave for several days. In this season, I was much surprised with the increase of my family. I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or as I thought had been dead, and I heard no more tidings of her till to my astonishment, she came home about the end of August with three kittens. This was the more strange to me because though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was quite a different kind from our European cats. But the young cats were the same kind of house breed as the old one, and both my cats being females, I thought it very strange. But from these three cats, I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible. From the fourteenth of August to the twenty sixth, incessant rain so that I could not stir, and was now very thankful not to be much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straightened for food, but venturing out twice I one day killed a goat, and the last day, which was the twenty sixth, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated. Thus I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the boat's flesh or of the turtle for my dinner, broiled for to my great misfortune. I had no vessel to boil or stew anything, and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper. During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on towards one side till I came to the outside of the hill and made a door or way out which came beyond my fence or wall. And so I came in and out this way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open, For as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure, whereas now I thought I lay exposed and opened for anything to come in upon me. And yet I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear. The biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat. September thirtieth, I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my post and found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ, and not having tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours even till the going down of the sun. I then ate a biscuit cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as I began it. I had all this time observed no Sabbath day, for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks by making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day, and so did not really know what any of the days were. But now having cast up the days as above, I found I had been there a year. So I divided it in two weeks and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath, though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning. A little after this, my ink began to fail me, and so I contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the most memorable events of my life without continuing a daily memorandum of other things. The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me, and I learned to divide them to provide for them accordingly. But I bought all my experience before I had it, and this I am going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made. I have mentioned that I had saved the few years of barley and rice, which I had so surprisingly found spring up as I thought of themselves, and I believe there were about thirty stocks of rice and about twelve of barley, and now I thought it a proper time to sow it. After the rains, the sunbeam in its southern position going from me. Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain. But as I was sowing it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sew it all at first, because I did not know what was the proper time for it. I sewed about two thirds of the seed, and leaving about a handful of each. It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so for not one grain of what I sowed this time came to anything. For the dry months following the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had little moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as much as if it had been but newly sown. Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined was by the drought, I sought out for a moisture piece of ground to make another trial, And I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little before the vernal equinox. And this, having the rainy months of March and April toward, it sprung up very pleasantly and yielded a very good crop. And having part of the seed left only, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop, not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. But by this experiment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow, and that I might expect two seed times and two harvests every year. While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery which was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over and the weather began to settle, which was about the month of November, I made a visit up the country to my bower, where, though I had not been some months yet, I found all things just as I left them. The circle or double edge that I had made was not only firm and entire, but the steaks which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches, as much as a willow tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head. I could not tell what tree to call it that these steaks were cut from. I was surprised and yet well pleased to see the young trees grow, and I pruned them and led them up to grow as much alike as I could. And it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years, so that though the hedge made a circle of about twenty five yards in diameter, yet the trees for such as I might now call them, soon covered it, and it was a complete shade sufficient to lodge under all the dry season. This made me resolve to cut some more steak and make me a hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall. I mean that of my first dwelling, which I did in placing the trees or steaks in a double row at about eight yards distance from my first fence. They grew presently and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and afterwards served for a defense. Also, as I shall observe in its order, I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus the half of February, the whole of March, and the half of April rainy, the sun being then on or near the equinox, the half of April, the whole of May, June and July, and the half of August dry, the sun being then to the north of the line. The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of October rainy, the sun being then come back the half of October, the whole of November, December, and January and the half of February dry, the sun being then to the south of the line. The rainy seasons sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds happened to blow. But this was the general observation I made. After I had found by experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain, I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand that I might not be obliged to go out, and I sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months. This time I found much employment, and very suitable also to the time, for I found great occasion for many things which I had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labor and constant application. Particularly, I tried many ways to make myself a basket, but all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advantage to me now that when I was a boy, I used to take great delight in standing at a basket maker's in the town where my father lived, to see them make their wicker wear, and being as boys usually are very officious to help and a great observer of the manner in which they worked these things, and sometimes lending a hand. I had, by these means full knowledge of the methods of it, and I wanted nothing but the materials. When it came into my mind that the twigs of that tree from whence I cut my steaks that grew might possible be as tough as the sallows, willows and ossiers in England, and I resolved to try accordingly. The next day I went to my country house, as I called it, and cutting down some of the smaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as I could desire. Whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity which I soon found, for there was a great plenty of them. These I set up to dry within my circle or hedge, and when they were fit for use, I carried them to my cave, and here during the next season I employed myself in making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything as I had occasion. And though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose. Thus, afterwards I took care never to be without them, And as my wicker ware decayed, I made more, especially strong, deep baskets to place my corn in instead of sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it. Having mastered this difficulty and employed a world of time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two Once I had no vessels to hold anything that was liquid, except two runlets which were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the common size, and others which were case bottles square for the holding of water, spirits, et cetera. I had not so much as a pot to boil anything except a great kettle, which I saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such as I desired it, that is, to make broth and stew a bit of meat by itself. The second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco pipe, but it was impossible to make me one. However, I found a contrivance for that too. At last I employed myself in planting my second rows of steaks or piles, and in this wicker working all the summer or dry season. When another business took me up more time than it could be imagined. I could spare end of chapter seven,