Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 08 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

Transcript

08 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight surveys his position. I mentioned before that I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: had a great mind to see all the island, and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: that I had traveled up the brook and so on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to where I built my bower, and where I had
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: an opening quite to the sea on the other side
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of the island. I now resolved to travel quite across
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to the sea shore on that side, so taking my gun,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit cakes and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I began my journey. When I had passed the vale
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: where my bower stood. As above, I came within view
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of the sea to the west, and had been a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: very clear day. I fairly descried land. Whether an island
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: or a continent, I could not tell, but it lay
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: very high, extending from the west to the west southwest,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: at a very great distance. By my guess, it could
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off. I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: could not tell what part of the world this might be,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America, and,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: as I concluded by all my observations, must be near
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: where if I had landed, I had been in a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: worse condition than I was now. Therefore I acquiesced in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the dispositions of providence, which I began now to own,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and to believe ordered everything for the best. I say,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: therefore I quieted my mind with this, and left off
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there. Besides, after
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: some thought upon this affair, I considered that if this
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly one time
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: or other see some vessel pass or repass one way
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: or other. But if not, then it was the Savage coast,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: between the Spanish country and Brazils, where are found the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: worst of savages, for they are cannibals or men eaters,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and fail not to murder and devour all the human
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: bodies that fall into their hands. With these considerations, I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: walked very leisurely forward. I found that side of the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: island where I now was was much pleasanter than mine.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: The open savannah or fields were sweet, adorned with flowers
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and grass, and full of very fine woods. I saw
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: abundance of parrots and fain I would have caught one,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: if possible, to have kept it to be tame and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: taught it to speak to me. I did, after some painstaking,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: catch a young parrot, for I knocked it down with
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: But it was some years before I could make him speak. However,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: at last I taught him to call me by name,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: very familiarly. But the accident that followed, though it be
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a trifle, will be very diverting in its place, I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: low grounds hares as I thought them to be, and foxes,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: but they differed greatly from all the other kinds that
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I had met, Nor could I satisfy myself to eat them,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: though I killed several. But I had no need to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: be venturous, for I had no want of food, and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of that which was very good too, especially these three
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: sorts that as goats, pigeons, and turtle or tortoise, which
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: added to my grapes. Leadenhall Market could not have furnished
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: a table better than I in proportion to the company.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And though my case was deplorable enough, yet I had
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to dainties.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I never traveled in this journey above two miles outright
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: in a day or thereabouts, but I took so many
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: turns and returns to see what discoveries I could make,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that I came weary enough to the place where I
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: resolved to sit down all night. And then I either
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: row of stakes set upright in the ground, and either
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: from one tree to another, or so as no wild
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: creature could come at me without waking me. As soon
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: as I came to the sea shore, I was surprised
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to see that I had taken up my lot on
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the worst side of the island. For here, indeed the
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: side I had found but three in a year and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a half. Here were also an infinite number of fowls
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of many kinds, some of which I had seen and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: some which I had not seen before, and many of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: them very good meat. But such as I knew not
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the names of, except those called penguins. I could have
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of my powder and shot, and therefore had more mind
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to kill a she goat if I could, which I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: could better feed on. And though there were many goats here,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: more than on my side of the island, yet it
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was with much more difficulty that I could come near them,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the country being flat and even, and they saw me
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: much sooner than when I was on the hills. I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: But yet I had not the least inclination to remove,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: For as I was fixed in my habitation, it became
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: natural to me, and I seemed all the while I
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: was here to be as it were. Upon a journey
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and from home, however, I traveled along the shore of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the sea towards the east, I suppose about twelve miles,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and then setting up a great pole upon the shore
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for a mark, I concluded I would go home again,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and that the next journey I took should be on
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the other side of the island, east from my dwelling,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And so round till I came to my post again.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I took another way to come back. Then that I went,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thinking I could easily keep all the island so much
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: in my view that I could not miss finding my
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: first dwelling by viewing the country. But I found myself
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to be mistaken for being come about two or three miles,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I found myself descended into a very large valley, but
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with wood,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: that I could not see which was my way by
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: any direction but that of the sun, nor even then,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: unless I knew very well the position of the sun
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: at that time of the day. It happened to my
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: further misfortune that the weather proved hazy for three or
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: four days while I was in the valley and not
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: able to see the sun. I wandered about very uncomfortably,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and at last was obliged to find the seaside looking
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: for my post, and come back the same way I went,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And then by easy journeys, I turned homeward, the weather
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: things very heavy. In this journey, my dog surprised a
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: young kid and seized upon it, and I, running in
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to take hold of it, caught it and saved it
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: alive from the dog. I had a great mind to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: bring it home if I could, for I had often
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: been musing whether it might not be possible to get
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: a kid or two, and so raise a breed of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: tame goats which might supply me when my powder and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: shot should be all spent. I made a collar for
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: this little creature, and with a string which I made
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of some rope yam, which I always carried about me,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I led to him along. There was some difficulty till
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I came to my bower, and there I enclosed him
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and left him, for I was very impatient to be
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: at home, from whence I had been absent above a month.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to come into my old hutch and lie down in
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: my hammock bed. This little wandering journey without settled place
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of abode had been so unpleasant to me that my
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: own house, as I called it to myself, was a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: perfect settlement to me compared to that, and it rendered
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: everything about me so comfortable that I resolved I would
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: never go a great way from it again, while it
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: should be my lot to stay on the island. I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: reposed myself here a week to rest and regale myself
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: after my long journey, during which most of the time
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was taken up in the way affair of making a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: cage for my pall, who began now to be a
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: mere domestic and to be well acquainted with me. Then
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I began to think of the poor kid which I
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: had pinned in within my little circle, and resolved to
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: go and fetch it home or give it some food. Accordingly,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I went and found it where I had left it,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: for indeed it could not get out, but was almost
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: starved for one of food. I went and cut boughs
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of trees and branches of some shrubs as I could find,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and threw it over, And having fed it, I tied
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: it as I did before, to lead it away. But
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: it was so tame with being hungry that I had
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: no need to have tied it, for it followed me
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: like a dog. And as I continually fed it, the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: it became from that time one of my domestics also,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and would never leave me Afterwards. The rainy season of
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: thirtieth of September in the same solemn manner as before,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: being the anniversary of my landing on the island, having
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: now been there two years and no more prospect of
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: being delivered than the first day I came there. I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had been
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: pleased to discover to me that it was possible I
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: might be more happy in this solitary condition than I
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: should have been in the liberty of society, and in
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: all the pleasures of the world, that He could fully
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: make up to me the deficiencies of mine, my solitary state,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and the want of human society, by his presence and
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the communications of His grace to my soul, supporting, comforting,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and encouraging me to depend upon His providence here and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: hope for his eternal presence hereafter. It was now that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: than the wicked, cursed, and abominable life I had led
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the past part of my days. And now I changed
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: both my sorrows and my joys. My very desires altered,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: my affections changed their guests, and my delights were perfectly
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: new from what they were at my first coming, or
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: indeed for the two years past before. As I walked about,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: either on my hunting or for viewing the country, the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: anguish of my soul at my condition would break out
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: upon me on a sudden and my very heart would
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: die within me. To think of the woods, the mountains,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: in an uninhabited wilderness without redemption. In the midst of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the greatest composure of mind, this would break out upon
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: me like a storm and make me wring my hands
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: in the middle of my work, and I would immediately
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: sit down and sigh and look upon the ground for
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: an hour or two together. And this was still worse
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: to me, for if I could burst out into tears
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: or vent myself by words, it would go off, and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate. But now I
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: began to exercise myself with new thoughts. I daily read
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Word of God and applied all the comforts of
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: it to my present state. One morning, being very sad,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I opened the Bible upon these words, I will never
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: never leave THEE, nor forsake THEE. Immediately it occurred that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: these words were to me. Why else should they be
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: directed in such a manner, just at the moment when
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I was mourning over my condition as one forsaken of
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: God and man? Well, then said I, if God does
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: not forsake me of what ill consequence can it be?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Or what matters it? Though? The world should all forsake me. Seeing,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, if I had all the world
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and should lose the favor and blessing of God, there
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: would be no comparison in the loss. From this moment,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I began to conclude in my mind that it was
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: solitary condition than it was probable I should ever have
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: been in any other particular state in the world. And
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: with this thought, I was going to give thanks to
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: God for bringing me to this place. I know not
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: what it was, but something shocked my mind at that thought,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: and I durst not speak the words. How canst Thou
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: become such a hypocrite, said I even audibly, to pretend
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to be thankful for a condition which, however thou mayst
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: endeavor to be contented with. Thou wouldst rather pray heartily
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to be delivered from. So I stopped there. But though
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I could not say I thanked God for being there,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: by whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: my life, and to mourn for my wickedness and repent.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I never opened the Bible or shut it, but my
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: in England, without any order of mine, to pack it
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: up among my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: save it out of the wreck of the ship. Thus,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And though I have not given the reader the trouble
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of so particular account of my works this year as
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the first, yet in general it may be observed that
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: time according to the several daily employments that were before me,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: such as first my duty to God and the reading
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the scriptures, which I constantly set apart sometime for thrice
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: every day. Secondly, the going abroad with my gun for food,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: which generally took me up three hours, and every morning
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: when it did not rain. Thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and cooking what I had killed or caught for my supply.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: These took up great part of the day. Also, it
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: is to be considered that in the middle of the day,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the heat was too great to stir out, so that
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: about four hours in the evening was all the time
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I could be supposed to work in. With this exception
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and working
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and went to work in the morning and abroad with
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: my gun in the afternoon. To this short time allowed
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: for labor, I desire maybe added the exceeding laboriousness of
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my work, the many hours which, for want of tools,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: want of help, and want of skill everything I did
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: took up out of my time. For example, I was
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: full two and forty days in making a board for
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a long shelf which I wanted in my cave, whereas
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: two sawyers with their tools and a saw pit would
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: have cut six of them out of the same tree
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: in half a day. My case was this. It was
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to be a large tree which was to be cut down,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: because my board was to be a broad one. This
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: tree I was three days in cutting down, and two
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: more cutting off the boughs and reducing it to a
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: log or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I reduced both the sides of it into chips till
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: it began to be light enough to move. Then I
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: turned it and made one side of it smooth and
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: flat as a board from end to end. Then, turning
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: that side downward, cut the other side till I brought
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the plank to be about three inches thick and smooth
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: on both sides. Anyone may judge the labor of my
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: hands and such a piece of work, but labor and
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: patience carried me through that and many other things. I
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: can only observe this in particular to show the reason
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: why so much of my time went away with so
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: little work. That is that what might be a little
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to be done with help in tools was of vast
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: labor and required a prodigious time to do alone and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: by hand. But notwithstanding this, with patience and labor, I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: got through everything that my circumstances made necessary to me
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to do, as will appear by what follows. I was
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: now in the months of November and December expecting my
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: crop of barley and rice. The ground I had manured
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and dug up for them was not great, for, as
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I observed, my seed was of each not above the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: quantity of half peck, and for I had lost one
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: whole crop by sowing in the dry season. But now
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: found I was in danger of losing it all again
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: by enemies of several sorts, which it was scarcely possible
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to keep from it. As first the goats and wild creatures,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: which I called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: lay in it night and day as soon as it
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: came up, and ate it so close that it could
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: get no time to shoot up into stalk. This I
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: it with the hedge, which I did with a great
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: deal of toil, and the more because it required speed. However,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: as my arable land was but small, suited to my crop.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks time,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and shooting some of the creatures in the daytime. I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: set my dog to guard it in the night, tying
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: him up to a steak at the gate, where he
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: would stand and bark all night long. So in a
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: little time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: grew well and strong, and began to ripen a pace.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But as the beasts ruined me before while my corn
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: was in the blade, so the birds were as likely
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: to ruin me now when it was in the ear.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: For going along by the place to see how it throve,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls, of I
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: know not how many sorts, who stood as it were
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: among them, for I always had my gun with me.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I had no sooner shot. But there rose up a
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: all from among the corn itself. This touched me sensibly,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: for I foresaw that in a very few days they
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: would devour all my hopes, that I should be starved
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and never be able to raise a crop at all.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And what to do I could not tell. However, I
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: should watch it night and day. In the first place,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I went among it to see what damage was already done,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and found they had spoiled a good deal of it,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: but that as it was yet too green for them,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the loss was not so great, but that the remainder
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: was likely to be a good crop if it could
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: be saved. I stayed by it to load my gun,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and then coming away I could easily see the thieves
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: only waited till I was gone away, And the event
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: proved it to be so, for as I walked off,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: as if I was gone, I was no sooner out
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: of their sight than they dropped down, one by one
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: into the corn. Again. I was so provoked that I
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: could not have patience to stay till more came on,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: knowing that every grain a day eight now was, as
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: it might be said, easily a peck loaf to me
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: in the consequences. But coming up to the hedge, I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: fired again and killed three of them. This was what
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I wished for, so I took them up and served
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: them as we served notorious thieves, and England hanged them
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: in chains for a terror of them. It is impossible
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to imagine that this should have had such an effect
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: as it did, for the fowls would not only not
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: come at the corn, but in short they forsook all
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: that part of the island, and I could never see
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: on'm there. This I was very glad of, as you
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: may be sure. And about the latter end of December,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: which was our second harvest of the year, my corn
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I was sadly put for a scythe or sickle to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: cut it down, and all I could do was to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: make one as well as I could, out of one
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: of the broadswords or cutlasses, which I saved among the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: arms out of the ship. However, as my first crop
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was but small, I had no great difficulty to cut
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: it down. In short, I reaped it in my way,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: for I cut nothing off but the ears, and carried
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it away in a great basket which I had made,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and so rubbed it out with my hands. And at
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the end of the harvesting I found that out of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my half peck of seed, I had near two bushels
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of rice, and about two bushels and a half of barley,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that is to say, by my guess, for I had
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: no measure at that time. However, this was a great
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: encouragement to me, and I foresaw that in time it
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: would please God to supply me with bread. And yet
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: here I was perplexed again, for I neither knew how
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to grind or to make meal of my corn, or
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: indeed how to clean it and part it, nor if
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: made into meal, how to make bread of it, and
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: if how to make it, yet I knew not how
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: to bake it. These things being added to my desire
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of having a good quantity of store, and to secure
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: this crop, but to preserve it all for seed against
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the next season. In the meantime, to employ all my
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: study and hours of working to accomplish this great work
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of providing myself with corn and bread. It might be
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: truly said that now I worked for my bread. I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: believe few people have thought much of upon the strange
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: multitude of little things necessary into providing, producing, curing, dressing,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: making and finishing this one article of bread. I that
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was reduced to a mere state of nature. Found this
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: to my daily discouragement, and was made more sensible of
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: it every hour, even after I had got the first
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: handful of seed corn, which as I have said, came
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: up unexpectedly and indeed to a surprise. First I had
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: no plow to turn up the earth, no spade or
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: shovel to dig it. Well. This I conquered by making
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a wooden spade, as I observed before. But this did
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: my work but in a wooden manner, And though it
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: cost me a great many days to make it, yet
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: for want of iron, it not only wore out soon,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: but made my work the harder and made it be
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: performed much worse. However, this I bore with and was
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: content to work with it out with patience, and bear
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: with the badness of the performance. When the corn was sown,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I had no harrow, but was forced to go over
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: it myself and drag a great heavy bough of a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: tree over it to scratch it, as it may be called,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and grown, I have observed already how many things I
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: into bread, and an oven to bake it in. But
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: all these things I did without, as Shelby observed. And
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: me too. All this, as I said, made everything laborious
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and tedious to me, but that there was no help
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: for neither was my time so much lost to me,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Because as I divided it, a certain part of it
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: was every day appointed to these works. And as I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: had resolved to use none of the corn for bread
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: till I had a greater quantity by me, I had
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: the next six months to apply myself wholly by labor
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: performing all the operations necessary for making the corn, when
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I had it fit for my use. End of Chapter
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: eight