Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 13 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
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- 0:01Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, Wreck of a Spanish Ship. I was now
- 0:08Speaker 1: in the twenty third year of my residence in this island,
- 0:13Speaker 1: and was so naturalized to the place and the manner
- 0:16Speaker 1: of living that could I but have enjoyed the certainty
- 0:19Speaker 1: that no savages would come to the place to disturb me.
- 0:23Speaker 1: I could have been content for capitulating to spend the
- 0:27Speaker 1: rest of my time there, even to the last moment
- 0:30Speaker 1: till I had laid me down and died like the
- 0:33Speaker 1: old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to
- 0:37Speaker 1: some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass
- 0:41Speaker 1: a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before.
- 0:45Speaker 1: First I had taught my pal, as I noted before,
- 0:49Speaker 1: to speak, and he did it so familiarly, and talked
- 0:53Speaker 1: so articulately and plain that it was very pleasant to me.
- 0:59Speaker 1: And he lived with me no less than six and
- 1:02Speaker 1: twenty years. How long he might have lived afterwards, I
- 1:06Speaker 1: know not, though I know they have a notion in
- 1:11Speaker 1: the Brazils that they live one hundred years. My dog
- 1:15Speaker 1: was a pleasant and loving companion to me for no
- 1:18Speaker 1: less than sixteen years of my time, and then died
- 1:22Speaker 1: of mere old age, as for my cats. They multiplied,
- 1:27Speaker 1: as I have observed, to that degree that I was
- 1:29Speaker 1: obliged to shoot several of them at first to keep
- 1:33Speaker 1: them from devouring me and all I had. But at length,
- 1:37Speaker 1: when the two old ones I brought with me were gone,
- 1:41Speaker 1: and after some time continually driving them from me and
- 1:45Speaker 1: letting them have no provision with me, they all ran
- 1:48Speaker 1: wild into the woods, except two or three favorites, which
- 1:53Speaker 1: I kept saying, and who's young? When they had any,
- 1:56Speaker 1: I always drowned, and these were part of my family.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Besides these, I always kept two or three household kids
- 2:06Speaker 1: about me, whom I taught two feet out of my hand.
- 2:10Speaker 1: And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well
- 2:13Speaker 1: and would all call Robin Crusoe. But not like my first,
- 2:20Speaker 1: nor indeed did I take the pains with any of
- 2:23Speaker 1: them that I had done with him. I had also
- 2:27Speaker 1: several tame sea fowls whose name I knew, not that
- 2:32Speaker 1: I caught upon the shore and cut their wings, and
- 2:35Speaker 1: the little steaks which I had planted before my castle wall,
- 2:39Speaker 1: being now grown up to a good thick rove. These
- 2:42Speaker 1: fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there,
- 2:47Speaker 1: which was very agreeable to me, so that, as I
- 2:50Speaker 1: said above, I began to be very well contented with
- 2:54Speaker 1: the life I led, if I could have secured from
- 2:58Speaker 1: the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise directed.
- 3:04Speaker 1: And it may not be amiss for all people who
- 3:07Speaker 1: shall meet with my story to make this just observation
- 3:11Speaker 1: from it. How frequently, in the course of our lives,
- 3:15Speaker 1: the evil, which in itself we seek most to shun,
- 3:19Speaker 1: and which when we are fallen into, is the most
- 3:22Speaker 1: dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door
- 3:28Speaker 1: of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised
- 3:31Speaker 1: again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could
- 3:36Speaker 1: give many examples of this in the course of my
- 3:38Speaker 1: unaccountable life, but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable
- 3:44Speaker 1: than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary
- 3:48Speaker 1: residence in this island. It was now the month of December,
- 3:53Speaker 1: as I said above, in my twenty third year, and
- 3:57Speaker 1: this being the southern solstice for winter I can call
- 4:00Speaker 1: it was the particular time of my harvest, and required
- 4:06Speaker 1: me to be pretty much abroad in the fields. When
- 4:10Speaker 1: going out early in the morning, even before it was
- 4:14Speaker 1: thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
- 4:18Speaker 1: some fire upon the shore at a distance from me
- 4:22Speaker 1: of about two miles, toward that part of the island
- 4:25Speaker 1: where I had observed some savages had been as before,
- 4:30Speaker 1: and not on the other side, But to my great affliction,
- 4:35Speaker 1: it was on my side of the island. I was
- 4:40Speaker 1: indeed terribly surprised, and stopped short within my grove at
- 4:48Speaker 1: the sight, not daring to go out lest I might
- 4:51Speaker 1: be surprised. And yet I had no more peace within
- 4:56Speaker 1: from the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in
- 4:59Speaker 1: rambling over the eye should find my corn standing, or cut,
- 5:04Speaker 1: or any of my works or improvements, they would immediately
- 5:08Speaker 1: conclude that there were people in the place, and would
- 5:12Speaker 1: never rest then till they had found me out and
- 5:17Speaker 1: this extremity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled
- 5:21Speaker 1: up the ladder after me, and made all things without
- 5:25Speaker 1: look as wild and natural as I could. Then I
- 5:30Speaker 1: prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defense.
- 5:36Speaker 1: I loaded all my cannon as I called them, that
- 5:39Speaker 1: is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my
- 5:42Speaker 1: new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend
- 5:46Speaker 1: myself to the last gasp, not forgetting to commend myself
- 5:52Speaker 1: seriously to the divine protection and earnestly to pray to
- 5:58Speaker 1: God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians.
- 6:03Speaker 1: I continued in this posture about two hours and began
- 6:06Speaker 1: to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no
- 6:11Speaker 1: spies to send out. After sitting a while longer and
- 6:16Speaker 1: musing what I should do in this case, I was
- 6:19Speaker 1: not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer, so setting
- 6:24Speaker 1: up my ladder to the side of the hill where
- 6:27Speaker 1: there was a flat place as I observed before, and
- 6:30Speaker 1: then pulling the ladder after me, I set it up
- 6:33Speaker 1: again and mounted the top of the hill, and pulling
- 6:37Speaker 1: out my prospective glass, which I had taken on purpose,
- 6:41Speaker 1: I laid me down flat on my belly on the
- 6:43Speaker 1: ground and began to look for the place I presently found.
- 6:49Speaker 1: There were no less than nine naked savages sitting round
- 6:54Speaker 1: a small fire they had made, not to warm them,
- 6:58Speaker 1: for they had no need of at the weather being
- 7:01Speaker 1: extremely hot. But as I supposed to dress, some of
- 7:07Speaker 1: their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought
- 7:11Speaker 1: with them, whether alive or dead, I could not tell.
- 7:18Speaker 1: They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled
- 7:21Speaker 1: up upon the shore, and as it was then ebb
- 7:24Speaker 1: of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the
- 7:28Speaker 1: return of the flood to go away again. It is
- 7:31Speaker 1: not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into,
- 7:35Speaker 1: especially seeing them come on my side of the island
- 7:39Speaker 1: and so near to me. But when I considered their
- 7:42Speaker 1: coming must be always with the current of the ebb,
- 7:46Speaker 1: I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind,
- 7:50Speaker 1: being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all
- 7:54Speaker 1: the time of the flood, all the time of the tide,
- 7:58Speaker 1: if they were not on shore before. And having made
- 8:02Speaker 1: this observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with
- 8:06Speaker 1: the more composure as I expected. So it proved, for
- 8:13Speaker 1: as soon as the tide made to the westward, I
- 8:16Speaker 1: saw them all take boat and row or paddle as
- 8:20Speaker 1: we call it away. I should have observed that for
- 8:24Speaker 1: an hour or more before they went off, they were dancing,
- 8:29Speaker 1: and I could discern their postures and gestures by my glass.
- 8:35Speaker 1: I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that
- 8:39Speaker 1: they were stark, naked and had not the least covering
- 8:43Speaker 1: upon them, but whether they were men or women I
- 8:47Speaker 1: could not distinguish. As soon as I saw them shipped
- 8:51Speaker 1: and gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and
- 8:55Speaker 1: two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by
- 8:58Speaker 1: my side without a scabbard, and with all the speed
- 9:02Speaker 1: I was able to make, went away to the hill
- 9:04Speaker 1: where I had discovered the first appearance of all. And
- 9:08Speaker 1: as soon as I got thither, which was not in
- 9:10Speaker 1: less than two hours, for I could not go quickly,
- 9:15Speaker 1: being so loaded with arms as I was, I perceived
- 9:20Speaker 1: there had been three canoes more of the savages at
- 9:23Speaker 1: that place, and looking out farther I saw they were
- 9:27Speaker 1: all at sea together making over for the main. This
- 9:31Speaker 1: was a dreadful sight to me, especially as going down
- 9:36Speaker 1: to the shore I could see the marks of horror
- 9:39Speaker 1: which the dismal work they had been about had left
- 9:42Speaker 1: behind it. That is, the blood, the bones, and part
- 9:48Speaker 1: of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by
- 9:52Speaker 1: those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled
- 9:58Speaker 1: with indignation at the site that I now began to
- 10:02Speaker 1: premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Let them be whom or how many. Soever, it seemed
- 10:11Speaker 1: evident to me that the visits which they made thus
- 10:14Speaker 1: to this island were not very frequent, for it was
- 10:17Speaker 1: above fifteen months before any more of them came on
- 10:21Speaker 1: shore there. Again, that is to say, I neither saw them,
- 10:24Speaker 1: nor any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time.
- 10:29Speaker 1: For as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure
- 10:33Speaker 1: not to come abroad, at least not so far yet.
- 10:37Speaker 1: All this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the
- 10:42Speaker 1: constant apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise. From
- 10:46Speaker 1: whence I observe that the expectation of evil is more
- 10:52Speaker 1: bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room
- 10:56Speaker 1: to shake off that expectation or those apprehension. During all
- 11:02Speaker 1: this time I was in a murdering humor, and spent
- 11:06Speaker 1: most of my hours, which should have been better employed,
- 11:09Speaker 1: in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the
- 11:13Speaker 1: very next time I should see them, especially if they
- 11:16Speaker 1: should be divided, as they were the last time, into
- 11:19Speaker 1: two parties. Nor did I consider at all that if
- 11:23Speaker 1: I killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I
- 11:27Speaker 1: was still the next day or week or a month
- 11:30Speaker 1: to kill another, and so another, even odd infinitum, till
- 11:35Speaker 1: I should be at length no less a murderer than
- 11:38Speaker 1: they were in being man eaters, and perhaps much more so.
- 11:44Speaker 1: I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety
- 11:49Speaker 1: of mind, expecting that I should one day or other
- 11:53Speaker 1: fall into the hands of these merciless creatures. And if
- 11:57Speaker 1: I did at any time venture abroad, it was not
- 12:00Speaker 1: without looking around me with the greatest care and caution imaginable.
- 12:06Speaker 1: And now I found, to my great comfort how happy
- 12:10Speaker 1: it was that I had provided a tame flock or
- 12:13Speaker 1: herd of goats for I durst not upon any account
- 12:17Speaker 1: fire my gun, especially near that side of the island
- 12:21Speaker 1: where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages.
- 12:26Speaker 1: And if they had fled from me, now I was
- 12:29Speaker 1: sure to have them come again, with perhaps two or
- 12:32Speaker 1: three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and
- 12:36Speaker 1: then I knew what to expect. However, I wore out
- 12:41Speaker 1: a year and three months more before I ever saw
- 12:44Speaker 1: any more of the savages, and then I found them again.
- 12:48Speaker 1: As I shall soon observe, it is true they might
- 12:52Speaker 1: have been there once or twice, but either they made
- 12:55Speaker 1: no stay, or at least I did not see them.
- 12:58Speaker 1: But in the month of May, as far as I
- 13:01Speaker 1: could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I
- 13:06Speaker 1: had a very strange encounter with them, of which in
- 13:11Speaker 1: its place, the perturbation of my mind during this fifteen
- 13:17Speaker 1: or sixteen months interval was very great. I slept unquietly,
- 13:24Speaker 1: dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of my
- 13:29Speaker 1: sleep in the night. In the day, great troubles overwhelmed
- 13:33Speaker 1: my mind, and in the night I dreamed often of
- 13:36Speaker 1: killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might
- 13:39Speaker 1: justify doing it. But to waive all of this for
- 13:44Speaker 1: a while. It was in the middle of May, on
- 13:48Speaker 1: the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor
- 13:51Speaker 1: wooden calendar would reckon before I marked all upon the posts. Still,
- 13:57Speaker 1: I say it was on the sixteenth of May that
- 14:01Speaker 1: it blew a very great storm of wind all day,
- 14:05Speaker 1: with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a
- 14:10Speaker 1: very foul night. It was after it I knew not
- 14:14Speaker 1: what was the particular occasion of it. But as I
- 14:18Speaker 1: was reading in the Bible and taken up with very
- 14:20Speaker 1: serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with
- 14:26Speaker 1: the noise of a gun, as I thought fired at sea.
- 14:32Speaker 1: This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of different
- 14:36Speaker 1: nature from any I had met with before, for the
- 14:39Speaker 1: notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind.
- 14:43Speaker 1: I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in
- 14:47Speaker 1: a trice, clapped my ladder in the middle place of
- 14:50Speaker 1: the rock, pulled it up after me, and mounting it
- 14:53Speaker 1: the second time, got to the top of the hill
- 14:55Speaker 1: the very moment that a flash of fire bid me
- 14:59Speaker 1: listen for a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half
- 15:03Speaker 1: a minute I heard, and by the sound knew that
- 15:07Speaker 1: it was from that part of the sea where I
- 15:09Speaker 1: was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately
- 15:15Speaker 1: considered that this must be some ship in distress, and
- 15:18Speaker 1: that they had some comrade or some other ship in company,
- 15:23Speaker 1: and fired these for signals of distress and to obtain help.
- 15:29Speaker 1: I had the presence of mine at that minute to
- 15:31Speaker 1: think that though I could not help them, it might
- 15:34Speaker 1: be that they might help me. So I brought together
- 15:37Speaker 1: all the dry wood I could get at hand, and
- 15:40Speaker 1: making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire
- 15:44Speaker 1: upon the hill. The wood was dry and blazed freely,
- 15:49Speaker 1: and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned
- 15:52Speaker 1: fairly out, so that I was certain if there was
- 15:55Speaker 1: any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it,
- 16:00Speaker 1: and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever
- 16:03Speaker 1: my fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and after
- 16:06Speaker 1: that several others, all from the same quarter. I plied
- 16:11Speaker 1: my fire all night long till daybreak, and when it
- 16:14Speaker 1: was broad day and the air cleared up, I saw
- 16:18Speaker 1: something at a great distance at sea, full east of
- 16:22Speaker 1: the island, whether a sail or a hull, I could
- 16:26Speaker 1: not distinguish, no, not with my glass. The distance was
- 16:30Speaker 1: so great, and the weather still something hazy. Also, at
- 16:35Speaker 1: least it was so out at sea. I looked frequently
- 16:40Speaker 1: at it all that day, and soon perceived that it
- 16:44Speaker 1: did not move. So I presently concluded that it was
- 16:47Speaker 1: a ship at anchor, and, being eager, you may be
- 16:51Speaker 1: sure to be satisfied. I took my gun in my
- 16:54Speaker 1: hand and ran towards the south side of the island
- 16:58Speaker 1: to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away
- 17:00Speaker 1: by the current, And getting up there, the weather by
- 17:03Speaker 1: this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see to
- 17:08Speaker 1: my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away
- 17:13Speaker 1: in the night, upon those concealed rocks which I found
- 17:17Speaker 1: when I was out in my boat, and which rocks,
- 17:20Speaker 1: as they checked the violence of the stream, and made
- 17:23Speaker 1: a kind of counter system, or eddy where the occasion
- 17:27Speaker 1: of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that
- 17:32Speaker 1: ever I had been in in all my life. Thus,
- 17:36Speaker 1: but as one man's safety is another man's destruction. For
- 17:42Speaker 1: it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of
- 17:45Speaker 1: their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly underwater, had been
- 17:49Speaker 1: driven upon them in the night, and the wind blowing
- 17:53Speaker 1: hard at east northeast. Had they seen the island, as
- 17:58Speaker 1: I must necessarily suppose they did not, They must, as
- 18:01Speaker 1: I thought, have endeavored to have saved themselves on shore
- 18:04Speaker 1: by the help of their boat. But their firing of
- 18:08Speaker 1: guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined,
- 18:11Speaker 1: my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First I imagined
- 18:17Speaker 1: that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves
- 18:21Speaker 1: into their boat and endeavored to make the shore, but
- 18:26Speaker 1: that the sea running very high, they might have been
- 18:28Speaker 1: cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have
- 18:34Speaker 1: lost their boat before, as might be the case in
- 18:37Speaker 1: many ways, particularly by the breaking of the sea upon
- 18:43Speaker 1: their ship, which many times obliged men to stave or
- 18:47Speaker 1: take to pieces their boat, and sometimes to throw it
- 18:50Speaker 1: overboard with their own hands. Other times I imagined that
- 18:56Speaker 1: they had some other ship or ships in company, who,
- 18:59Speaker 1: upon the signals of distress they made, had taken them
- 19:02Speaker 1: up and carried them off. Other times I fancied they
- 19:07Speaker 1: were all gone off to see in their boat and
- 19:10Speaker 1: being hurried away by the current that I had formerly been,
- 19:14Speaker 1: and were carried out into the great ocean, where there
- 19:18Speaker 1: was nothing but misery and perishing, And that perhaps they
- 19:24Speaker 1: might by this time think of starving and of being
- 19:29Speaker 1: in a condition to eat one another. As all these
- 19:35Speaker 1: were but conjectures at best. So in the condition I
- 19:39Speaker 1: was in, I could do no more than look upon
- 19:43Speaker 1: the misery of the poor men and pity them, which
- 19:48Speaker 1: had still this good effect upon my side, that it
- 19:52Speaker 1: gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God,
- 19:55Speaker 1: who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in
- 19:59Speaker 1: my desolate condition, and that of two ships companies who
- 20:04Speaker 1: were now cast away upon this part of the world.
- 20:08Speaker 1: Not one life should be spared but mine. I learned
- 20:13Speaker 1: here again to observe that it is very rare that
- 20:17Speaker 1: the providence of God casts us into any condition so low,
- 20:22Speaker 1: or any misery so great. But we may see something
- 20:26Speaker 1: or other to be thankful for, and may see others
- 20:30Speaker 1: in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was the
- 20:34Speaker 1: case of these men, of whom I could not so
- 20:37Speaker 1: much as see room to suppose any were saved. Nothing
- 20:42Speaker 1: could make it rational so much as to wish or
- 20:45Speaker 1: expect that they did not all perish there, except the
- 20:50Speaker 1: possibility only of their being taken up by another ship
- 20:53Speaker 1: in company. And this was but mere possibility, indeed, for
- 20:59Speaker 1: I saw not the least sign or appearance of any
- 21:02Speaker 1: such thing. I cannot explain by any possible energy of words,
- 21:08Speaker 1: what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon
- 21:12Speaker 1: the sight breaking out. Sometimes thus, oh, that there had
- 21:18Speaker 1: been but one or two, nay, or but one soul
- 21:22Speaker 1: saved out of the ship to have escaped to me,
- 21:25Speaker 1: that I might but have had one companion, one fellow creature,
- 21:30Speaker 1: to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with
- 21:35Speaker 1: In all the time of my solitary life, I never
- 21:38Speaker 1: felt so earnest, so strong a desire. After the society
- 21:42Speaker 1: of my fellow creatures, or so deep a regret at
- 21:47Speaker 1: the want of it. There are some secret springs in
- 21:53Speaker 1: the affections which, when they are set agoing by some
- 21:56Speaker 1: object in view, or though not in view, yet rendered
- 22:00Speaker 1: present to the mind by the power of imagination, that
- 22:04Speaker 1: motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity, to such violent,
- 22:11Speaker 1: eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it
- 22:15Speaker 1: is insupportable. Such were these earnest wishings that but one
- 22:21Speaker 1: man had been saved. I believe I repeated the words, oh,
- 22:25Speaker 1: that it had been but one a thousand times, and
- 22:30Speaker 1: my desires were so moved by it that when I
- 22:33Speaker 1: spoke the words, my hands would clench together, and my
- 22:37Speaker 1: fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that
- 22:41Speaker 1: if I had had any soft thing in my hand,
- 22:44Speaker 1: I would have crushed it involuntarily, and the teeth in
- 22:48Speaker 1: my head would strike together and set against one another
- 22:51Speaker 1: so strong that for some time I could not part
- 22:54Speaker 1: them again. Let the naturalists explain these things and the
- 23:00Speaker 1: reason and manner of them. All I can do is
- 23:03Speaker 1: to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me
- 23:07Speaker 1: when I found it, though I knew not from whence
- 23:10Speaker 1: it proceeded. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes
- 23:16Speaker 1: and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the
- 23:22Speaker 1: comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow Christians
- 23:26Speaker 1: would have been to me. But it was not to be.
- 23:31Speaker 1: Either their fate for mine, or both forbade it. For
- 23:37Speaker 1: till the last year of my being on this island,
- 23:40Speaker 1: I never knew whether any were saved out of that
- 23:43Speaker 1: ship or no, and had only the affliction some days
- 23:47Speaker 1: after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come
- 23:52Speaker 1: on shore at the end of the island, which was
- 23:54Speaker 1: next the wreck. He had no clothes on but a
- 23:59Speaker 1: seaman's westcotte, a pair of open kneed linen drawers, and
- 24:05Speaker 1: a blue linen shirt, but nothing to direct me so
- 24:09Speaker 1: much as to guess what nation he was of. He
- 24:13Speaker 1: had nothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight
- 24:16Speaker 1: and a tobacco pipe. The last was to me of
- 24:20Speaker 1: ten times more value than the first. It was now calm,
- 24:26Speaker 1: and I had a great mind to venture out in
- 24:29Speaker 1: my boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might
- 24:33Speaker 1: find something on board that might be useful to me.
- 24:36Speaker 1: But that did not altogether press me so much as
- 24:39Speaker 1: the possibility that there might be yet some living creature
- 24:43Speaker 1: on board whose life I might not only save, but might,
- 24:47Speaker 1: by saving his life, comfort my own to the last degree.
- 24:53Speaker 1: And this thought clung so to my heart that I
- 24:56Speaker 1: could not be quiet night or day, but I must
- 24:59Speaker 1: venture in my boat on board this wreck, and committing
- 25:03Speaker 1: the rest to God's providence. I thought the impression was
- 25:07Speaker 1: so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted,
- 25:10Speaker 1: that it must come from some invisible direction, and that
- 25:14Speaker 1: I should be wanting to myself if I did not
- 25:17Speaker 1: go under the power of this impression. I hastened back
- 25:22Speaker 1: to my castle, prepared everything for my voyage. Took a
- 25:26Speaker 1: quantity of bread, a great pot of fresh water, a
- 25:29Speaker 1: compass to steer by, a bottle of rhemfor I still
- 25:33Speaker 1: had a great deal of that left, and a basket
- 25:36Speaker 1: of raisins. And thus loading myself with everything necessary, I
- 25:41Speaker 1: went down to my boat, got the water out of her,
- 25:44Speaker 1: got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and
- 25:47Speaker 1: then went home again for more. My second cargo was
- 25:52Speaker 1: a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up
- 25:56Speaker 1: over my head for a shade, another large pot of water,
- 26:00Speaker 1: and about two dozen of small loaves or barley cakes
- 26:05Speaker 1: more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and
- 26:08Speaker 1: a cheese, all which with great labor and sweat I
- 26:12Speaker 1: carried to my boat, and, praying to God to direct
- 26:16Speaker 1: my voyage, I put out, and, rowing or paddling the
- 26:19Speaker 1: canoe along the shore, came at last to the utmost
- 26:23Speaker 1: point of the island, on the northeast side. And now
- 26:27Speaker 1: I was to launch out into the ocean, and either
- 26:29Speaker 1: to venture or not to venture. I looked on the
- 26:35Speaker 1: rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the
- 26:38Speaker 1: island at a distance, and which were very terrible to
- 26:41Speaker 1: me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been
- 26:43Speaker 1: in before, and my heart began to fail me. For
- 26:48Speaker 1: I foresaw that if I was driven into either of
- 26:51Speaker 1: those currents, I should be carried a great way out
- 26:54Speaker 1: to sea, and perhaps out of my reach or sight
- 26:58Speaker 1: of the island again, And that then, as my boat
- 27:02Speaker 1: was so small, if any little gale of wind should rise,
- 27:07Speaker 1: I should be inevitably lost. These thoughts so oppressed my
- 27:14Speaker 1: mind that I began to give over my enterprise, And
- 27:18Speaker 1: having hauled my boat into a little creek, on the shore.
- 27:21Speaker 1: I stepped out and sat down upon a rising bit
- 27:25Speaker 1: of ground, very pensive and anxious between fear and desire
- 27:32Speaker 1: about my voyage. When as I was musing, I could
- 27:37Speaker 1: perceive that the tide was turned and the flood come on,
- 27:42Speaker 1: upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours.
- 27:48Speaker 1: Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I should
- 27:51Speaker 1: go up to the highest piece of ground I could
- 27:54Speaker 1: find and observe if I could how the sets of
- 27:58Speaker 1: the tide or currents lay when the flood came in,
- 28:02Speaker 1: that I might judge whether if I was driven one
- 28:05Speaker 1: way out, I might not expect to be driven another
- 28:09Speaker 1: way home with the same rapidity of the currents. This
- 28:14Speaker 1: thought was no sooner in my head than I cast
- 28:16Speaker 1: my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the
- 28:20Speaker 1: sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear
- 28:24Speaker 1: view of the currents or sets of the tide, and
- 28:28Speaker 1: which way I was to guide myself in my return.
- 28:32Speaker 1: Here I found that as the current of Ebbs set
- 28:35Speaker 1: out close by the south point of the island, so
- 28:38Speaker 1: the current of the flood set in close by the
- 28:41Speaker 1: shore of the north side, and that I had nothing
- 28:45Speaker 1: to do but to keep to the north side of
- 28:47Speaker 1: the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
- 28:54Speaker 1: Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to
- 28:58Speaker 1: set out with the first of the tide, and reposing
- 29:01Speaker 1: myself for the night in my canoe under the watch
- 29:04Speaker 1: coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a
- 29:08Speaker 1: little out to sea full north, till I began to
- 29:11Speaker 1: feel the benefit of the current which set eastward, and
- 29:15Speaker 1: which carried me at a great rate, and yet did
- 29:18Speaker 1: not so hurry me as the current on the south
- 29:21Speaker 1: side had done before, so as to take from me
- 29:24Speaker 1: all government of the boat. But having a strong steerage
- 29:28Speaker 1: with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly
- 29:33Speaker 1: for the wreck, and in less than two hours I
- 29:36Speaker 1: came up to it. It was a dismal sight to
- 29:39Speaker 1: look at the ship, which by its building was Spanish,
- 29:44Speaker 1: stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern
- 29:49Speaker 1: and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea,
- 29:53Speaker 1: and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had
- 29:57Speaker 1: run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
- 30:02Speaker 1: brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off.
- 30:07Speaker 1: But her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow
- 30:10Speaker 1: appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog
- 30:15Speaker 1: appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried,
- 30:20Speaker 1: and as soon as I called him, jumped into the
- 30:23Speaker 1: sea to come to me. I took him into the boat,
- 30:27Speaker 1: but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst. I
- 30:31Speaker 1: gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured
- 30:34Speaker 1: it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a
- 30:38Speaker 1: fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature
- 30:41Speaker 1: some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him,
- 30:45Speaker 1: he would have burst himself. After this I went on board,
- 30:51Speaker 1: but the first sight I met was two men drowned
- 30:55Speaker 1: in the cook room or forecastle of the ship, with
- 30:59Speaker 1: their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as is
- 31:05Speaker 1: indeed probable, that when the ship struck it, being in
- 31:09Speaker 1: a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually
- 31:13Speaker 1: over her, that the men were not able to bear it,
- 31:17Speaker 1: and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water,
- 31:21Speaker 1: as much as if they had been underwater. Besides the dog,
- 31:26Speaker 1: there was nothing left in the ship that had life,
- 31:30Speaker 1: nor any goods that I could see, but what were
- 31:33Speaker 1: spoiled by the water. There were some casts of liquor,
- 31:37Speaker 1: whether wine or brandy. I knew not which lay lower
- 31:40Speaker 1: in the hold, and which the water being ebbed out,
- 31:44Speaker 1: I could see, but they were too big to meddle with.
- 31:48Speaker 1: I saw several chests, which I believe belonged to some
- 31:52Speaker 1: of the seamen, and I got two of them into
- 31:54Speaker 1: my boat without examining what was in them. Had the
- 31:58Speaker 1: stern of the ship fixed and the four part broken off,
- 32:03Speaker 1: I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage,
- 32:06Speaker 1: for by what I found in those two chests, I
- 32:09Speaker 1: had room to suppose the ship had a great deal
- 32:12Speaker 1: of wealth on board, and if I may guess from
- 32:15Speaker 1: the course she steered, she must have been bound from
- 32:19Speaker 1: Buenos Aires or the Rio de la Plata in the
- 32:23Speaker 1: south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havana
- 32:28Speaker 1: in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.
- 32:32Speaker 1: She had, no doubt a great treasure in her, but
- 32:36Speaker 1: of no use at that time to anybody. And what
- 32:41Speaker 1: became of the crew I then knew not. I found
- 32:47Speaker 1: beside those chests a little cask full of liquor of
- 32:50Speaker 1: about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with
- 32:52Speaker 1: much difficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin, and
- 32:57Speaker 1: a great powder horn with about four pounds of powder
- 33:01Speaker 1: in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion
- 33:05Speaker 1: for them, so I left them, but took the powder horn.
- 33:09Speaker 1: I took a fire shovel and tongs, which I wanted
- 33:12Speaker 1: extremely as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot
- 33:17Speaker 1: to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo
- 33:21Speaker 1: and the dog, I came away the tide, beginning to
- 33:24Speaker 1: make home again, and the same evening about an hour
- 33:28Speaker 1: within night I reached the island again. Weary and fatigued
- 33:33Speaker 1: to the last degree, I reposed that night in the boat,
- 33:37Speaker 1: and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I
- 33:40Speaker 1: had got in my new cave, and not carry it
- 33:43Speaker 1: home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all
- 33:47Speaker 1: my cargo on board and began to examine the particulars.
- 33:53Speaker 1: The cask of liquor I found to be a kind
- 33:55Speaker 1: of rum, but not such as we had at the brazils,
- 34:00Speaker 1: and in a word, not at all good. But when
- 34:03Speaker 1: I came to open the chests I found several things
- 34:06Speaker 1: of great use to me. For example, I found in
- 34:10Speaker 1: one a fine case of bottles of an extraordinary kind,
- 34:14Speaker 1: and filled with cordial waters, fine and very good. The
- 34:19Speaker 1: bottles held about three pints each and were tipped with silver.
- 34:24Speaker 1: I found two pots of very good soucades or sweetmeats,
- 34:29Speaker 1: so fastened also on the top that the salt water
- 34:32Speaker 1: had not hurt them, and two more of the same
- 34:35Speaker 1: which the water had spoiled. I found some very good shirts,
- 34:40Speaker 1: which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen
- 34:43Speaker 1: and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths.
- 34:48Speaker 1: The former were also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to
- 34:52Speaker 1: wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when
- 34:56Speaker 1: I came to the till. In the chest, I found
- 34:59Speaker 1: three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about
- 35:03Speaker 1: eleven hundred pieces in all, and in one of them,
- 35:07Speaker 1: wrapped up in a paper, six the balloons of gold,
- 35:11Speaker 1: in some small bars or wedges of gold. I suppose
- 35:16Speaker 1: they might all weigh near a pound. In the other
- 35:20Speaker 1: chest there were some clothes, but of little value, but
- 35:25Speaker 1: by the circumstances it must have belonged to the gunner's mate,
- 35:30Speaker 1: though there was no powder in it, except two pounds
- 35:33Speaker 1: of fine clazed powder in three flasts kept, I suppose,
- 35:39Speaker 1: for charging their falling pieces on occasion. Upon the whole
- 35:44Speaker 1: I got very little by this voyage that was of
- 35:47Speaker 1: any use to me. For as to the money, I
- 35:51Speaker 1: had no manner of occasion for it. It was to
- 35:56Speaker 1: me as the dirt under my feet. And I would
- 35:59Speaker 1: have given it all for three or four pair of
- 36:02Speaker 1: English shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
- 36:07Speaker 1: but had had none on my feet for many years.
- 36:12Speaker 1: I had indeed got two pair of shoes now, which
- 36:16Speaker 1: I took off the feet of the two drowned men
- 36:19Speaker 1: whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two
- 36:22Speaker 1: pair more and one of the chests, which were very
- 36:25Speaker 1: welcome to me. But they were not like our English shoes,
- 36:29Speaker 1: either for ease or service, being rather what we call
- 36:34Speaker 1: pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about
- 36:39Speaker 1: fifty pieces of eight in rial's, but no gold. I
- 36:45Speaker 1: suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other,
- 36:49Speaker 1: which seemed to belong to some officer. Well. However, I
- 36:55Speaker 1: lugged this money home to my cave, as I had
- 36:59Speaker 1: done that before, which I had brought from our own ship.
- 37:04Speaker 1: But it was a great pity as I said that
- 37:08Speaker 1: the other part of this ship had not come to
- 37:10Speaker 1: my share, for I am satisfied. I might have loaded
- 37:14Speaker 1: my canoe several times over with money, and thought, if
- 37:19Speaker 1: I ever escaped to England, it might lie here safe
- 37:23Speaker 1: enough till I come again and fetch it. End of
- 37:29Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen.