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

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Speaker 1: Chapter nine a boat. But first I was to prepare
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Speaker 1: more land, for I had now seen enough to sow
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Speaker 1: above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I
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Speaker 1: had a week's work at least to make me a spade,
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Speaker 1: which when it was done, was but a sorry one, indeed,
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Speaker 1: and very heavy, and required double labor to work with it. However,
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Speaker 1: I got through that and sowed my seed in two
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Speaker 1: large flat pieces of ground as near my house as
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Speaker 1: I could find them to mind, and fenced them in
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Speaker 1: with a good hedge, the stakes of which were all
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Speaker 1: cut off that wood which I have set before and
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Speaker 1: knew it would grow, so that in a year's time
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Speaker 1: I knew I should have a quick or living hedge
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Speaker 1: that would want but little repair. This work did not
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Speaker 1: take me up less than through months, because a great
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Speaker 1: part of that time was the wet season, when I
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Speaker 1: could not go abroad within doors, that is, when it
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Speaker 1: rained and I could not go out. I found employment
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Speaker 1: in the following occupations, always observing that all the while
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Speaker 1: I was at work, I diverted myself with talking to
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Speaker 1: my parrot and teaching him to speak. And I quickly
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Speaker 1: taught him to know his own first name, and at
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Speaker 1: last to speak it out pretty loud, pall, which was
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Speaker 1: the first word I ever heard spoken in the island
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Speaker 1: by any mouth but my own. This therefore was not
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Speaker 1: my work, but an assistance to my work. For now,
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Speaker 1: as I said, I had a great employment upon my hands.
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Speaker 1: As follows, I had long studied to make, by some
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Speaker 1: means or other, some earthen vessels, which indeed I wanted sorely,
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Speaker 1: but knew not where to come at them. However, considering
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Speaker 1: the heat of the climate, I did not doubt, but
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Speaker 1: if I could find out any clay, I might make
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Speaker 1: some pots that might, being dried in the sun, be
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Speaker 1: hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to
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Speaker 1: hold anything that was dry and required to be kept so,
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Speaker 1: And as this was necessary in the preparing of corn meal,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, which was the thing I was doing, I
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Speaker 1: resolved to make some as large as I could, and
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Speaker 1: fit only to stand like jars to hold what should
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Speaker 1: be put into them. It would make the reader pity me,
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Speaker 1: or rather laugh at me, to tell how many awkward
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Speaker 1: ways I took to raise this paste, what odd, misshapen
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Speaker 1: ugly things I made, how many of them fell in,
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Speaker 1: and how many fell out? The clay not being stiff
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Speaker 1: enough to bear its own weight. How many cracked by
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Speaker 1: the over violent heat of the sun, being set out
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Speaker 1: too hastily, and how many fell in pieces, with only
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Speaker 1: removing as well before as after they were dried. And
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Speaker 1: in a word, how after having labored hard to find
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Speaker 1: the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring
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Speaker 1: it home and work it, I could not make above
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Speaker 1: two large earthen, ugly things I cannot call them jars
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Speaker 1: in about two months labor. However, as the sun baked
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Speaker 1: these two very hard and dry, I lifted them very
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Speaker 1: gently up and set them down again in two great
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Speaker 1: wicker baskets, which I had made on purpose for them,
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Speaker 1: that they might not break. And as between the pot
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Speaker 1: and the basket there was a little room to spare,
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Speaker 1: I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw.
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Speaker 1: And these two pots, being to stand always dry, I
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Speaker 1: thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps my meal
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Speaker 1: when the corn was bruised. Though I miscarried so much
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Speaker 1: in my design for large pots, yet I made several
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Speaker 1: smaller things with better success, such as little round pots,
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Speaker 1: flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand
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Speaker 1: turned to and the heat of the sun baked them
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Speaker 1: quite hard. But all this would not answer my end,
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Speaker 1: which was to get an earthen pot to hold what
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Speaker 1: was liquid and bare the fire, which none of these
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Speaker 1: could do. It happened after some time, making a pretty
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Speaker 1: large fire for cooking my meat. When I went to
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Speaker 1: put it out after I was done with it, I
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Speaker 1: found a broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels
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Speaker 1: in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone and
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Speaker 1: red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it,
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Speaker 1: and said to myself that certainly they might be made
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Speaker 1: to burn whole if they would burn broken. This set
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Speaker 1: me to study how to order my fire so as
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Speaker 1: to make it burn some pots. I had no notion
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Speaker 1: of a kiln such as the potters burn in, or
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Speaker 1: of glazing them with lead, though I had some lead
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Speaker 1: to do it with. But I placed three large pipkins
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Speaker 1: and two or three pots in a pile, one upon another,
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Speaker 1: and placed my firewood all around it, with a great
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Speaker 1: heap of embers under them. I plied the fire with
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Speaker 1: fresh fuel round the outside and upon the top, till
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Speaker 1: I saw the pots in the inside red hot quite through,
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Speaker 1: and observed that they did not crack at all, but
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Speaker 1: I saw them clear red. I let them stand in
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Speaker 1: that heat about five or six hours till I found
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Speaker 1: one of them, though it did not crack, did melt
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Speaker 1: or run for the sand, which was mixed with the clay,
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Speaker 1: melted by the violence of the heat, and would have
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Speaker 1: run into glass if I had gone on. So I
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Speaker 1: slacked my fire gradually till the pots began to abate
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Speaker 1: of the red color, and watching them all night that
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Speaker 1: I might not let the fire abate too fast. In
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Speaker 1: the morning I had three very good, I will not
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Speaker 1: say handsome pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard
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Speaker 1: burnt as could be desired, and one of them perfectly
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Speaker 1: blazed with the running of the sand. After this experiment,
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Speaker 1: I need not say that I wanted no sort of
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Speaker 1: earthenware for my use, but I must need say as
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Speaker 1: to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, and
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Speaker 1: as anyone may suppose when I had no way of
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Speaker 1: making them, But as the children make dirt pies, or
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Speaker 1: as a woman who would make pies that never learned
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Speaker 1: to raise paste, no joy at a thing of so
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Speaker 1: min a nature was ever equal to mine. When I
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Speaker 1: found I had made an earthen pot that would bear
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Speaker 1: the fire, and I had hardly patience to stay till
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Speaker 1: they were cold before I set one on the fire
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Speaker 1: again with some water in it to boil me some meat,
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Speaker 1: which it did admirably well, and with a kind of
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Speaker 1: piece of a kid I made some very good broth,
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Speaker 1: though I wanted oatmeal and several other ingredients requisite to
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Speaker 1: make it as good as I would have had it been.
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Speaker 1: My next concern was to get me a stone mortar
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Speaker 1: to stamp or beat some corn in. For as to
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Speaker 1: the mill, there was no thought of arriving at that
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Speaker 1: perfection of art with one pair of hands to supply
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Speaker 1: this want. I was at a great loss. For of
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Speaker 1: all the trades in the world, I was as perfectly
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Speaker 1: unqualified for a stone cutter as for any whatever, neither
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Speaker 1: had I any tools to go about it with. I
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Speaker 1: spent many a day to find a great stone big
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Speaker 1: enough to cut hollow and make fit for a mortar,
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Speaker 1: and could find none at all except what was in
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Speaker 1: the solid rock, and which I had no way to
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Speaker 1: dig or cut out. Nor indeed were the rocks in
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Speaker 1: the island of Hardness sufficient, but were all of a
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Speaker 1: sandy crumbling stone, which neither could bear the weight of
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Speaker 1: a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling
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Speaker 1: it with sand. So, after a great deal of time
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Speaker 1: lost in searching for a stone, I gave it over
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Speaker 1: and resolved to look out for a great block of
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Speaker 1: hard wood, which I found indeed much easier, and getting
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Speaker 1: one as big as I had strength to stir, I
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Speaker 1: rounded it and formed it on the outside with my
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Speaker 1: axe and hatchet, and then, with the help of fire
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Speaker 1: and infinite labor, made a hollow place in it, as
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Speaker 1: the Indians in Brazil make their canoes. After this I
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Speaker 1: made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood
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Speaker 1: called the ironwood, and this I prepared and laid by
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Speaker 1: against I had my next crop of corn, which I
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Speaker 1: proposed to myself grind, or rather pound into meal to
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Speaker 1: make bread. My next difficulty was to make a sieve
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Speaker 1: or seerce to dress my meal, and to part it
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Speaker 1: from the brand and the husk, without which I did
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Speaker 1: not see it possible I could have any bread. This
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Speaker 1: was a most difficult thing even to look upon, for
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Speaker 1: to be sure, I had nothing like the necessary thing
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Speaker 1: to make it, I mean, fine thin canvas or stuff
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Speaker 1: to seerse the meal through. And here I was at
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Speaker 1: a full stop for many months. Nor did I really
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Speaker 1: know what to do, Lenin I had none left but
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Speaker 1: what was mere rags. I had goat's hair, but neither
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Speaker 1: knew how to weave or to spin it, and had
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Speaker 1: I known how, here were no tools to work it with.
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Speaker 1: All the remedy that I found was this that at
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Speaker 1: last I did remember. I had among the seamen's clothes,
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Speaker 1: which were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of
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Speaker 1: calico or muslin, And with some pieces of these I
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Speaker 1: made three small sieves proper enough for the work. And
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Speaker 1: thus I made shift for some years. How I did
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Speaker 1: afterwards I shall show in its place. The baking part
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Speaker 1: was the next thing to be considered, and how I
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Speaker 1: should make bread. When I came to have corn, for first,
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Speaker 1: I had no yeast. As to that part, there was
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Speaker 1: no supplying the want. So I did not concern myself
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Speaker 1: much about it. But for an oven I was indeed
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Speaker 1: in great pain. At length I found out an experiment
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Speaker 1: for that also, which was this. I made some earthen vessels,
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Speaker 1: very broad but not deep, that is to say, about
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Speaker 1: two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep. These
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Speaker 1: I burned in the fire as I had done the other,
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Speaker 1: and laid them by. And when I wanted to bake,
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Speaker 1: I made a great fire upon my hearth, which I
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Speaker 1: had paved with some square tiles of my own, baking
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Speaker 1: and burning also, but I should not call them square.
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Speaker 1: When the firewood was burned pretty much into enbers or
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Speaker 1: live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth so
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Speaker 1: as to cover it all over. And there I let
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Speaker 1: them lie till the hearth was very hot. Then, sweeping
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Speaker 1: away all the embers, I set down my low or loaves,
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Speaker 1: and whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew the
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Speaker 1: embers all round the outside of the pot to keep
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Speaker 1: in and add to the heat. And thus, as well
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Speaker 1: as in the best oven in the world, I baked
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Speaker 1: my barley loaves, and became in a little time a
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Speaker 1: good pastry cook into the bargain. For I made myself
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Speaker 1: several cakes and puddings of the rice. But I had
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Speaker 1: no pies, neither had I anything to put them in.
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Speaker 1: Supposing I had except the flesh, either of fowls or goats,
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Speaker 1: it need not be wondered, as if all these things
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Speaker 1: took up most of my time of third year of
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Speaker 1: my abode here. For it is to be observed that
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Speaker 1: in the interval of these things I had my new
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Speaker 1: harvest and husbandry to manage. For I reaped my corn
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Speaker 1: in its season, and carried it home as well as
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Speaker 1: I could, and laid it up in the ear in
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Speaker 1: my large baskets till I had time to rub it out,
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Speaker 1: for I had no floor to thrash it upon, or
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Speaker 1: instrument to thrash it with. And now indeed my stock
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Speaker 1: of corn increasing, I really wanted to build my barns bigger.
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Speaker 1: I wanted a place to lay it up in. For
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Speaker 1: the increase of the corn now yielded me so much
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Speaker 1: that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and
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Speaker 1: of the rice as much or more, insomuch that now
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Speaker 1: I resolved to begin to use it freely, for my
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Speaker 1: bread had been quite gone a great while. Also, I
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Speaker 1: resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me
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Speaker 1: a whole year, and to sew but once a year.
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Speaker 1: Upon the whole I found that the forty bushels of
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Speaker 1: barley and rice were much more than I could could
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Speaker 1: consume in a year. So I resolved to sow just
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Speaker 1: the same quantity every year that I sowed the last,
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Speaker 1: in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me
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Speaker 1: with bread, etc. All the while these things were doing,
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Speaker 1: you may be sure, my thoughts ran many times upon
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Speaker 1: the prospect of land, which I had seen from the
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Speaker 1: other side of the island. And I was not without
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Speaker 1: secret wishes that I were on shore there, fancying that
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Speaker 1: seeing the mainland and an inhabited country, I might find
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Speaker 1: some way or other to convey myself further, and perhaps
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Speaker 1: at last find some means of escape. But all this
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Speaker 1: while I made no allowance for the dangers of such
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Speaker 1: an undertaking, and how I might fall into the hands
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Speaker 1: of savages, and perhaps such as I might have reason
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Speaker 1: to think far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa,
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Speaker 1: that if I once came in their power, I should
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Speaker 1: run a hazard of more than one thousand to one
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Speaker 1: of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten. For I
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Speaker 1: had heard that the people of the Caribbean coast were
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Speaker 1: cannibals or man eaters, and I knew by the latitude
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Speaker 1: that I could not be far from that shore. Then,
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Speaker 1: supposing they were not cannibals, yet they might kill me
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Speaker 1: as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had
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Speaker 1: been served, even when they had been ten or twenty together.
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Speaker 1: Much more. I that was but one, and couldn't make
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Speaker 1: little or no defense. All these things I say, which
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Speaker 1: I ought to have considered well, and did come into
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Speaker 1: my thoughts afterwards, yet gave me no apprehensions at first,
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Speaker 1: and my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting
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Speaker 1: over to the shore. Now I wish for my boy Shuri,
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Speaker 1: and the longboat with the shoulder of mutton sail, with
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Speaker 1: which I had sailed above a thousand miles on the
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Speaker 1: coast of Africa. But this was in vain. Then I
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Speaker 1: thought I would go and look at our ship's boat, which,
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Speaker 1: as I have said, was blown up upon the shore
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Speaker 1: a great way in the storm when we first cast away.
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Speaker 1: She lay almost where she did at first, but not quite,
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Speaker 1: and was turned by the force of the waves and
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Speaker 1: the winds, almost bottom upward against a high ridge of
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Speaker 1: beechy rough sand, but no water about her. If I
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Speaker 1: had had hands to have refitted her, and to have
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Speaker 1: launched her into the water, the boat would have done
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Speaker 1: well enough. But and I might have gone back into
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Speaker 1: the Brazils with her easily enough. Yet I might have
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Speaker 1: foreseen that I could no more turn her and set
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Speaker 1: her upright upon her bottom than I could remove the island. However,
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Speaker 1: I went to the woods and cut levers and rollers,
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Speaker 1: and brought them to the boat, resolving to try what
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Speaker 1: I could do, suggesting to myself that if I could
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Speaker 1: turn her down, I might repair the damage she had received,
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Speaker 1: and she would be a very good boat, and I
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Speaker 1: might go to see in her very easily. I spared
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Speaker 1: no pains, indeed in this bit of fruitless toil, and
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Speaker 1: spent I think three or four weeks about it. At last,
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Speaker 1: finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength,
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Speaker 1: I fell to digging away the sand to undermine it,
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Speaker 1: and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of
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Speaker 1: wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall.
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Speaker 1: But when I had done this, I was unable to
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Speaker 1: stir it up again, or to get under it, much
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Speaker 1: less to move it forwards towards the water. So I
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Speaker 1: was forced to give it over. And yet though I
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Speaker 1: gave the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture
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Speaker 1: over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as the
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Speaker 1: means for it seemed impossible. This at length put me,
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Speaker 1: upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself
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Speaker 1: a canoe or periagua, such as the natives of those
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Speaker 1: climates make, even without tools, or as I might say,
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Speaker 1: without hands, of the trunk of a great tree. This
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Speaker 1: I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased myself
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Speaker 1: extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with my
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Speaker 1: having much more convenience for it than any of the
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Speaker 1: Negroes or Indians. But not at all considering the particular
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Speaker 1: inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians, and
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Speaker 1: that is, want of hands to move it when it
18:55
Speaker 1: was made into the water, a difficulty much harder for
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Speaker 1: me to surmount than all the consequences of want of
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Speaker 1: tools could be to them. For what was it to
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Speaker 1: me if, when I had chosen a vast tree in
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Speaker 1: the woods, and with much trouble cut it down, if
19:13
Speaker 1: I had been able with my tools to hew and
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Speaker 1: dub the outside with the proper shape of a boat,
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Speaker 1: and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow,
19:22
Speaker 1: so as to make a boat of it. If after
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Speaker 1: all this I must leave it just where I had
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Speaker 1: found it, and not be able to launch it into
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Speaker 1: the water, one would have thought I could not have
19:35
Speaker 1: had the least reflection upon my mind of the circumstances
19:39
Speaker 1: while I was making this boat. But I should have
19:43
Speaker 1: immediately thought how I should get it into the sea.
19:47
Speaker 1: But my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over
19:50
Speaker 1: the sea in it that I never once considered how
19:53
Speaker 1: I should get it off the land. And it was really,
19:56
Speaker 1: in its own nature more easy for me to guide
19:59
Speaker 1: it over forty five miles of sea about forty five
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Speaker 1: fathoms of land where it lay, to set it afloat
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Speaker 1: in the water. I went to work upon this boat
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Speaker 1: the most like a fool that ever man did who
20:14
Speaker 1: had any of the senses awake. I pleased myself with
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Speaker 1: the design, and without determining whether I was ever able
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Speaker 1: to undertake it not, but that the difficulty of launching
20:27
Speaker 1: my boat came often into my head. But I put
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Speaker 1: a stop to my inquiries into this by this foolish
20:35
Speaker 1: answer which I gave myself. Let me first make it.
20:39
Speaker 1: I warrant I will find some way or other to
20:42
Speaker 1: get it along when it is done. This was a
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Speaker 1: most preposterous method, but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed,
20:52
Speaker 1: and to work I went. I found a cedar tree,
20:56
Speaker 1: and I questioned much whether Solomon ever had such a
20:59
Speaker 1: one for the building of the Temple of Jerusalem. It
21:03
Speaker 1: was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part
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Speaker 1: next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at
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Speaker 1: the end of twenty two feet, after which it lessened
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Speaker 1: for a while and then parted into branches. It was
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Speaker 1: not without infinite labor that I felled the stream. I
21:24
Speaker 1: was twenty days hacking and hewing at it. At the
21:26
Speaker 1: bottom I was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs,
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Speaker 1: and the vast spreading head cut off, which I hacked
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Speaker 1: and hued through with axe and hatchet and inexpressible labor.
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Speaker 1: After this it cost me a month to shape it
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Speaker 1: and dub it to a proportion and to something like
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Speaker 1: the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright
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Speaker 1: as it ought to. It cost me near three months
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Speaker 1: more to clear the inside and work it out so
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Speaker 1: as to make it an exact boat. This I did,
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Speaker 1: indeed without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by
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Speaker 1: the dint of hard labor, till I had brought it
22:13
Speaker 1: to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough to
22:17
Speaker 1: have carried six and twenty men, and consequently big enough
22:21
Speaker 1: to have carried me and all my cargo. When I
22:26
Speaker 1: had gone through this work, I was extremely delighted with it.
22:31
Speaker 1: The boat was really much bigger than ever I saw
22:35
Speaker 1: a canoe or periagua that was made of one tree
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Speaker 1: in my life many a weary stroke. It had cost,
22:43
Speaker 1: you can be sure. And had I gotten it into
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Speaker 1: the water, I make no question, but I should have
22:48
Speaker 1: begun the maddest voyage and the most unlikely to be
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Speaker 1: performed that ever was undertaken. But all my devices to
22:58
Speaker 1: get it into the water failed me, though they cost
23:02
Speaker 1: me infinite labor. Two It lay about one hundred yards
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Speaker 1: from the water, and not more. But the first inconvenience
23:11
Speaker 1: was it was uphill towards the creek. Well. To take
23:16
Speaker 1: away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the surface
23:21
Speaker 1: of the earth and so make a declivity. This I began,
23:26
Speaker 1: and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains. But
23:29
Speaker 1: who grudge pains who have their deliverance in view. But
23:34
Speaker 1: when this was worked through and this difficulty managed, it
23:39
Speaker 1: was still much the same. For I could no more
23:42
Speaker 1: stir the canoe than I could the other boat. Then
23:46
Speaker 1: I ventured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut
23:49
Speaker 1: a dock or canal to bring the water up to
23:53
Speaker 1: the canoe. Seeing I could not bring the canoe down
23:57
Speaker 1: to the water well, I began this work. And when
24:01
Speaker 1: I had begun to enter upon it and calculate how
24:04
Speaker 1: deep it was to be dug, how broad how the
24:07
Speaker 1: stuff was to be thrown out, I found that by
24:10
Speaker 1: the number of hands I had been none but my own.
24:14
Speaker 1: It must have been ten or twelve years before I
24:19
Speaker 1: could have gone through with it, for the shore lay
24:22
Speaker 1: so high that at the upper end it must have
24:26
Speaker 1: been at least twenty feet deep, and so at length.
24:32
Speaker 1: But with great reluctancy I gave this attempt over. Also
24:39
Speaker 1: this grieved me heartily, and now I saw, though too late,
24:43
Speaker 1: the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost,
24:47
Speaker 1: and before we judge rightly of our own strength to
24:51
Speaker 1: go through with it. In the middle of this work
24:55
Speaker 1: I finished my fourth year in this place, and kept
24:58
Speaker 1: my anniversary with this same devotion and with as much
25:01
Speaker 1: comfort as ever before. For by a constant study and
25:07
Speaker 1: serious application of the Word of God, and by the
25:10
Speaker 1: assistance of His grace, I gained a different knowledge from
25:15
Speaker 1: what I had before, I entertained different notions of things.
25:22
Speaker 1: I looked now upon the world as a thing remote
25:27
Speaker 1: which I had nothing to do with, no expectations from,
25:32
Speaker 1: and indeed no desires about. In a word, I had
25:38
Speaker 1: nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever likely
25:42
Speaker 1: to have. So I thought it looked as we may
25:45
Speaker 1: perhaps look upon it hereafter, that is, as a place
25:50
Speaker 1: I had lived in, but was come out of it.
25:54
Speaker 1: And well might I say, as Father Abraham to dives
26:00
Speaker 1: between me and the is a great gulf fixed in
26:08
Speaker 1: the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness
26:10
Speaker 1: of the world. Here I had neither the lusts of
26:14
Speaker 1: the flesh and the lusts of the eye, nor the
26:17
Speaker 1: pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I
26:21
Speaker 1: had all that I was now capable of enjoying. I
26:25
Speaker 1: was lord of the whole manner, or if it pleased,
26:29
Speaker 1: I might call myself king or emperor over the whole
26:35
Speaker 1: country which I had possession of. There were no rivals.
26:40
Speaker 1: I had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command me.
26:46
Speaker 1: I might have raised shiploadings of corn, but I had
26:50
Speaker 1: no use for it. So I let as little grow
26:54
Speaker 1: as I thought enough for my occasion. I had tortoise
27:00
Speaker 1: or turtle enough, But now and then one was as
27:04
Speaker 1: much as I could put to any use. I had
27:07
Speaker 1: timber enough to have built a fleet of ships, and
27:11
Speaker 1: I had grapes enough to have made wine, or to
27:14
Speaker 1: have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when
27:18
Speaker 1: it had been built. But all I could make use
27:22
Speaker 1: of was all that was valuable. I had enough to
27:29
Speaker 1: eat and supply my wants. And what was all the
27:32
Speaker 1: rest to me? If I killed more flesh than I
27:35
Speaker 1: could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin. If
27:40
Speaker 1: I sowed more corn than I could eat, it must
27:43
Speaker 1: be spoiled. The trees that I cut down were lying
27:47
Speaker 1: to rot on the ground. I could make no more
27:51
Speaker 1: use of them but for fuel, and that I had
27:54
Speaker 1: no occasion for but to dress my food. In a word,
28:01
Speaker 1: the nature and experience of things dictated to me upon
28:05
Speaker 1: just reflection that all the good things of this world
28:10
Speaker 1: are no farther good to us than they are for
28:14
Speaker 1: our use, and that whatever we may heap up to
28:19
Speaker 1: give others, we enjoyed just as much as we can
28:23
Speaker 1: use and know more. The most covetous gripping miser in
28:30
Speaker 1: the world would have been cured of the vice of
28:34
Speaker 1: covetousness if he had been in my case. For I
28:39
Speaker 1: possessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with.
28:43
Speaker 1: I had no room for desire, except it was of
28:46
Speaker 1: things which I had not, and they were but trifles,
28:50
Speaker 1: though indeed of great use to me. I had, as
28:55
Speaker 1: I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold
28:59
Speaker 1: as silver, about thirty six pounds sterling. Alas there the
29:06
Speaker 1: sorry useless stuff lay, I had no more manner of
29:11
Speaker 1: business for it, and often though with myself that I
29:16
Speaker 1: would have given a handful of it for a gross
29:18
Speaker 1: of tobacco pipes, or for a hand mill to grind
29:21
Speaker 1: my corn. Nay, I would have given it all for
29:24
Speaker 1: a sixpenny worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England,
29:30
Speaker 1: or for a handful of peas and beans and a
29:34
Speaker 1: bottle of ink. As it was, I had not the
29:39
Speaker 1: least advantage by it or benefit from it. But there
29:44
Speaker 1: it lay in a drawer and grew moldy with the
29:47
Speaker 1: damp of the cave in the wet seasons. And if
29:50
Speaker 1: I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had
29:53
Speaker 1: been the same case they had been of no manner
29:56
Speaker 1: of value to me because of no use. Use I
30:03
Speaker 1: had now brought my state of life to be much
30:06
Speaker 1: easier in itself than it was at first, and much
30:09
Speaker 1: easier to my mind as well as to my body.
30:13
Speaker 1: I frequently sat down to meet with thankfulness and admired
30:18
Speaker 1: the hands of God's providence which had thus spread my
30:23
Speaker 1: table in the wilderness. I learned to look more upon
30:28
Speaker 1: the bright side of my condition and less upon the
30:31
Speaker 1: dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than
30:37
Speaker 1: what I wanted. And this gave me sometimes such secret
30:42
Speaker 1: comforts that I cannot express them, and which I take
30:47
Speaker 1: notice of here to put these discontented people in my
30:51
Speaker 1: mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has
30:55
Speaker 1: given them because they see and covet something that He
31:00
Speaker 1: has not given them. All our discontents about what we
31:05
Speaker 1: want appeared to me to spring from the want of
31:10
Speaker 1: thankfulness for what we have. Another reflection was of great
31:17
Speaker 1: use to me, and doubtless would be so to anyone
31:20
Speaker 1: that would fall into such distress as mine was. And
31:24
Speaker 1: this was to compare my present condition with what I
31:28
Speaker 1: at first expected it would be, nay, with what it
31:32
Speaker 1: would certainly have been if the good providence of God
31:35
Speaker 1: had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up
31:38
Speaker 1: nearer to the shore, where I not only could come
31:41
Speaker 1: at her, but could bring what I got out of
31:44
Speaker 1: her to the shore for my relief and comfort, without
31:49
Speaker 1: which I had wanted, for tools to work, weapons for defense,
31:54
Speaker 1: and gunpowder and shot for getting my food. I spent
32:00
Speaker 1: whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to
32:04
Speaker 1: myself in the most lively colors, how I would have
32:08
Speaker 1: acted if I had got nothing out of the ship,
32:13
Speaker 1: How I could not have so much as got any
32:16
Speaker 1: food except fish and turtles, And that, as it was
32:22
Speaker 1: long before I found any of them, I must have
32:25
Speaker 1: perished first. That I should have lived if I had
32:32
Speaker 1: not perished like a mere savage. That if I had
32:36
Speaker 1: killed a goat or a fowl by any contrivance, I
32:40
Speaker 1: had no way to flay or open it, or part
32:44
Speaker 1: the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to
32:47
Speaker 1: cut it up, but must gnaw it with my teeth
32:52
Speaker 1: and pull it with my claws like a beast. These
32:59
Speaker 1: reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence
33:02
Speaker 1: to me, and very thankful of my present condition, with
33:08
Speaker 1: all its hardships and misfortunes. And this part also I
33:12
Speaker 1: cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are
33:15
Speaker 1: apt in their misery to say, is any affliction like mine?
33:22
Speaker 1: Let them consider how much worse the cases of some
33:26
Speaker 1: people are, and their case might have been, if Providence
33:31
Speaker 1: had thought fit. I had another reflection which assisted me
33:37
Speaker 1: also to comfort my mind with hopes, and this was
33:41
Speaker 1: comparing my present situation with what I had deserved and
33:46
Speaker 1: had therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence.
33:50
Speaker 1: I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the
33:55
Speaker 1: knowledge and fear of God. I had been well instructed
33:59
Speaker 1: by Father and Mother. Neither had they been wanting to
34:03
Speaker 1: me in their early endeavors, to infuse a religious awe
34:07
Speaker 1: of God into my mind, a sense of my duty
34:10
Speaker 1: in what the nature and end of my being required
34:14
Speaker 1: of me. But alas falling early into the seafaring life,
34:20
Speaker 1: which of all lives, is the most destitute of the
34:23
Speaker 1: fear of God, though his terrors are always before them,
34:28
Speaker 1: I say, falling early into the seafaring life and into
34:32
Speaker 1: seafaring company, all that little sense of religion which I
34:36
Speaker 1: had entertained, was laughed out of me by my messmates,
34:42
Speaker 1: by a hardened despising of dangers and the views of death,
34:48
Speaker 1: which grew habitual to me by my long absence from
34:51
Speaker 1: all manner of opportunities to converse with anything but was
34:56
Speaker 1: like myself, or to hear anything that was good or
35:02
Speaker 1: tended towards it. So void was I of everything that
35:07
Speaker 1: was good or the least sense of what I was
35:12
Speaker 1: or was to be, that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed,
35:17
Speaker 1: such as my escape from Selie, my being taken up
35:21
Speaker 1: by the Portuguese master of the ship, my being planted
35:25
Speaker 1: so well in the Brazils, my receiving the cargo from England,
35:30
Speaker 1: and the like. I never had once the words thank
35:35
Speaker 1: God so much as on my mind or in my mouth,
35:41
Speaker 1: nor in the greatest distress, had I so much as
35:45
Speaker 1: a thought to pray to Him, or so much as
35:48
Speaker 1: to say, Lord, have mercy upon me, nor to mention
35:55
Speaker 1: the name of God. No, unless it was to swear
35:59
Speaker 1: by and blasphem it. I had terrible reflections upon my
36:07
Speaker 1: mind for many months, as I have already observed, on
36:11
Speaker 1: account of my wicked and hardened life past, and when
36:15
Speaker 1: I looked about me and considered what particular providences had
36:19
Speaker 1: attended me since my coming into this place, and how
36:23
Speaker 1: God had dealt bountifully with me, had not only punished
36:28
Speaker 1: me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so
36:32
Speaker 1: plentifully provided for me. This gave me great hopes that
36:39
Speaker 1: my repentance was accepted and that God had yet mercy
36:46
Speaker 1: in store for me. With these reflections, I worked my
36:52
Speaker 1: mind up not only to a resignation to the will
36:55
Speaker 1: of God in the present disposition of my circumstances, but
36:59
Speaker 1: even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition, and that I,
37:04
Speaker 1: who was yet a living man, ought not to complain,
37:09
Speaker 1: seeing I had not the due punishment of my sins,
37:14
Speaker 1: that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no
37:17
Speaker 1: reason to have expected in that place, that I ought
37:22
Speaker 1: never more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice
37:27
Speaker 1: and to give daily thanks for that daily bread which
37:31
Speaker 1: nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought. That
37:36
Speaker 1: I ought to consider I had been fed even by
37:39
Speaker 1: a miracle even as great as that of feeding Elijah
37:44
Speaker 1: by Ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles that
37:50
Speaker 1: I could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable
37:54
Speaker 1: part of the world, where I could have been cast
37:58
Speaker 1: more to my advantage, A place where as I had
38:03
Speaker 1: no society, which must was my affliction. On one hand,
38:07
Speaker 1: so I found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or
38:13
Speaker 1: tigers to threaten my life, no venomous creatures or poisons
38:19
Speaker 1: which I might feed on to my hurt, no savages
38:23
Speaker 1: to murder and devour me. In a word, as my
38:27
Speaker 1: life was a life of sorrow one way, so it
38:33
Speaker 1: was a life of mercy another, And I wanted nothing
38:38
Speaker 1: to make it a life of comfort, but to be
38:40
Speaker 1: able to make my sense of God's goodness to me
38:45
Speaker 1: and care over me in this condition be my daily consolation.
38:53
Speaker 1: And after I did make a just improvement of these things,
38:57
Speaker 1: I went away and was no more sad. I had
39:03
Speaker 1: now been here so long that many things which I
39:07
Speaker 1: had brought on shore for my help were either quite
39:10
Speaker 1: gone or very much wasted and near spent. My ink,
39:15
Speaker 1: as I observed, had been gone sometime, all but a
39:19
Speaker 1: very little, which I eat out with water, a little
39:23
Speaker 1: and a little, till it was so pale it scarce
39:27
Speaker 1: left any appearance of black upon the paper. As long
39:31
Speaker 1: as it lasted, I made use of it to minute
39:35
Speaker 1: down the days of the month on which any remarkable
39:38
Speaker 1: thing happened to me. And first, by casting up times past,
39:45
Speaker 1: I remembered that there was a strange concurrence of days
39:49
Speaker 1: in the various providences which befell me, and which if
39:53
Speaker 1: I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal
39:58
Speaker 1: or fortunate, I might have had reason to have looked
40:02
Speaker 1: upon with a great deal of curiosity. First I had
40:08
Speaker 1: observed that the same day that I broke away from
40:10
Speaker 1: my father and friends and ran away to Hull in
40:14
Speaker 1: order to go to sea, the same day afterwards I
40:17
Speaker 1: was taken by the Sali man of war and made
40:22
Speaker 1: a slave. And the same day of the year that
40:25
Speaker 1: I escaped out of the wreck of that ship in
40:28
Speaker 1: Yarmouth Roads. That same day year afterwards, I made my
40:35
Speaker 1: escape from Slie in a boat. The same day of
40:38
Speaker 1: the year I was born in that is the thirtieth
40:42
Speaker 1: of September. That same day I had my life so
40:47
Speaker 1: miraculously save twenty six years later, when I was cast
40:52
Speaker 1: on shore in this island, so that my wicked life
40:56
Speaker 1: and my solitary life began both on a day. The
41:04
Speaker 1: next thing to my ink being wasted was that of
41:07
Speaker 1: my bread, I mean the biscuit which I brought out
41:10
Speaker 1: of the ship. This I had husbanded to the last degree,
41:14
Speaker 1: allowing myself but one cake of bread a day for
41:17
Speaker 1: above a year. And yet I was quite without bread
41:21
Speaker 1: for near a year before I got any corn of
41:24
Speaker 1: my own, and great reason I had to be thankful
41:28
Speaker 1: that I had any at all the getting Yet, being
41:33
Speaker 1: as has been already observed, next too miraculous, my clothes
41:39
Speaker 1: too began to decay. As to linen, I had found
41:43
Speaker 1: none a good while, except some checkered shirts, which I
41:48
Speaker 1: found in the chests of the other seamen, and which
41:51
Speaker 1: I carefully preserved, because many times I could bear no
41:57
Speaker 1: other clothes on but a shirt. And it was a
42:00
Speaker 1: very great help to me that I had, among all
42:03
Speaker 1: the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozen of shirts.
42:09
Speaker 1: There were also, indeed several thick watchcoats of the semens
42:14
Speaker 1: which were left, but they were too hot to wear.
42:17
Speaker 1: And though it was true that the weather was so
42:21
Speaker 1: violently hot that there was no need of clothes, yet
42:25
Speaker 1: I could not go quite naked. No, though I had
42:29
Speaker 1: been inclined to it, which I was not, nor could
42:34
Speaker 1: I abide the thought of it though I was alone.
42:38
Speaker 1: The reason why I could not go naked was I
42:41
Speaker 1: could not bear the heat of the sun so well
42:44
Speaker 1: when quite naked, as with some clothes on, Nay, the
42:48
Speaker 1: very heat blistered my skin, whereas with a shirt on
42:53
Speaker 1: the air itself made some motion, and whistling under the
42:57
Speaker 1: shirt was too fold cooler than with it. No more
43:02
Speaker 1: could I ever bring myself to go out in the
43:04
Speaker 1: heat of the sun without a cap on my head
43:07
Speaker 1: or a hat. The heat of the sun, beating with
43:11
Speaker 1: such violence as it does in that place, would give
43:14
Speaker 1: me the headache presently by darting so directly on my
43:19
Speaker 1: head without a cap or hat on, so that I
43:21
Speaker 1: could not bear it, whereas if I put on my
43:26
Speaker 1: hat it would presently go away. Upon these views, I
43:32
Speaker 1: began to consider about putting the few rags I had,
43:36
Speaker 1: which I called clothes into some order. I had worn
43:40
Speaker 1: out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was
43:46
Speaker 1: now to try if I could make jackets out of
43:49
Speaker 1: the great watchcoats which I had of me, but with
43:55
Speaker 1: such other materials as I had. I set to working tailoring,
44:00
Speaker 1: or rather indeed botching, for I made most piteous work
44:04
Speaker 1: of it. However, I made shift to make two or
44:08
Speaker 1: three new waistcoats, which I hoped would serve me a
44:13
Speaker 1: great while. As for breeches and drawers, I made but
44:17
Speaker 1: a very sorry shift. Indeed, till afterwards I have mentioned
44:23
Speaker 1: that I saved the skins of all the creatures that
44:26
Speaker 1: I killed, I mean four footed ones, and I hung
44:30
Speaker 1: them up, stretched out with sticks in the sun, by
44:34
Speaker 1: which means some of them were so dry and so
44:37
Speaker 1: hard that they were fit for little, but others were
44:39
Speaker 1: very useful. The first thing I made of these was
44:44
Speaker 1: a great cap for my head, with the hair on
44:48
Speaker 1: the outside to shoot off the rain. And this I
44:51
Speaker 1: performed so well that after I made me a suit
44:55
Speaker 1: of clothes, wholly of these skins, that is to say,
44:58
Speaker 1: a waistcoat and breeches opened up the knees and both loose,
45:02
Speaker 1: for they were rather wanting to keep me cool than
45:06
Speaker 1: to keep me warm. I must not admit to acknowledge
45:11
Speaker 1: that they were wretchedly made, for if I was a
45:15
Speaker 1: bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor. However, they were
45:20
Speaker 1: such as I made very good shift with, and when
45:24
Speaker 1: I was out, if it happened to rain the hair
45:27
Speaker 1: of my waistcoat and cap, being outermost, I was kept
45:31
Speaker 1: very dry. After this, I spent a great deal of
45:35
Speaker 1: time and pains to make an umbrella. I was indeed
45:39
Speaker 1: in great want of one, and had a great mind
45:43
Speaker 1: to make one. I had seen them made in the Brazils,
45:46
Speaker 1: where they are very useful in the great heats there,
45:49
Speaker 1: and I felt the heats every jot is great here
45:54
Speaker 1: and greater two being near the equinox. Besides, as I
45:59
Speaker 1: was obliged to be much abroad, it was the most
46:02
Speaker 1: useful thing to me, as well for the rains as
46:04
Speaker 1: the heats. I took a world of pains with it,
46:08
Speaker 1: and was a great while before I could make anything
46:12
Speaker 1: likely to hold. Nay, after I had thought I had
46:16
Speaker 1: hit my way, I spoiled two or three before I
46:20
Speaker 1: made one to my mind. But at last I made
46:24
Speaker 1: one that answered indifferently well. The main difficulty I found
46:29
Speaker 1: was to make it let down. I can make it spread,
46:33
Speaker 1: but if I did not let down two and draw
46:36
Speaker 1: in it was not portable for me anyway, but just
46:39
Speaker 1: over my head, which would not do. However, at last,
46:45
Speaker 1: as I said, I made one to answer and covered
46:49
Speaker 1: it with skins the hair upwards, so that it cast
46:53
Speaker 1: off the rain like a penthouse, and kept off the
46:57
Speaker 1: sun so effectually that I could walk how in the
47:00
Speaker 1: hottest of the weather, with greater advantage than I could
47:04
Speaker 1: before in the coolest, and when I had no need
47:08
Speaker 1: of it, could close it and carry it under my arm.
47:14
Speaker 1: Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed.
47:18
Speaker 1: By resigning itself to the will of God, and throwing
47:23
Speaker 1: myself wholly under the disposal of His providence. This made
47:29
Speaker 1: my life better than sociable. For when I began to
47:33
Speaker 1: regret the want of conversation, I would ask myself whether
47:39
Speaker 1: thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and as I
47:45
Speaker 1: hope I may say, with even God himself by ejaculations,
47:50
Speaker 1: was not better than the most enjoyment of human society
47:56
Speaker 1: in the world. End of Chapter nine.