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11 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Adventure Books Library

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Chapter eleven, fines print of man's foot on the sand. It would have
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made a stoic smile to have seen me and my little family sit down to
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dinner. There was my Majesty, the Prince and Lord of the whole island.
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I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command. I
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could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no
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rebels among all my subjects. Then to see how like a king I dined
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too, all alone, attended by my servants. Paul, as if he
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had been my favorite, was the only person permitted to talk to me.
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My dog, who was now grown old and crazy and had found no species
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to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand, and two
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cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other,
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expecting now and then a bit from my hand as a mark of special favor.
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But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first,
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for they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my
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habitation by my own hand. But one of them, having multiplied by I
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know not what kind of creature. There were two which I had preserved tame,
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and whereas the rest ran wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome
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to me at last, for they would often come into my house and plunder
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me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot them, and did
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kill a great many. At length they left me with this attendance, and
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in this plentiful manner I lived. Neither could I be said to want anything
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but society, and of that some time after this I was likely to have
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too much. I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have
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the use of my boat, though very loath to run any more hazards.
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And therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and
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at other times I sat myself down, contented enough without her. But I
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had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the
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island. Where As I have said in my last ramble, I went up
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the hill to see how the shore lay and how the current set, that
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I might see what I had to do. This inclination increased upon me every
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day, and at length I resolved to travel thither by land, following the
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edge of the shore. I did so. But had anyone in England met
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such a man as I was, it might either have frightened him or raised
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a great deal of laughter. And as I frequently stood still to look at
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myself, I could not but smile at the notion of my traveling through Yorkshire
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with such an ecuipage, and in such a dress. Be pleased to take
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a sketch of my figure as follows. I had a great, high,
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shapeless cap made of a goat skin, with a flap hanging down behind,
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as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from
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running into my neck, nothing being hurtful in these climates, as the rain
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might be upon the flesh under the clothes. I had a short jacket of
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goat skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of the thighs,
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and a pair of open knee breeches of the same. The breeches were made
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of the skin of an old he goat, whose hair hung down such a
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length on either side like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs.
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Stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair of
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somethings I scarce know what to call them, like buskins, to flap over
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my legs and lace on either side like spatter dashes, but of a most
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barber shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes. I had
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on a broad belt of goat skin dried, which I knew how to draw,
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together with two thongs of the same instead of buckles, and in a
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kind of a frog. On either side of this, instead of a sword
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and dagger, hung a little saw in a hatchet, one on one side
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and one on the other. I had another belt, not so broad,
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and fastened it in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder, and
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at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches,
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both made of goat's skin, two in one of which hung my powder,
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and in the other my shot. At my back I carried my basket,
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and on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great clumsy,
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ugly goat skin umbrella, but which after all was the most necessary thing I
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had about me next to my gun. As for my face, the color
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of it was really not so mulatto like as one might expect from a man
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not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of
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the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about
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a quarter of a yard long, But as I had both scissors and razors
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sufficient, I had cut it pretty short except what grew on my upper lip,
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which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as
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I had seen worn by some Turks at Sali. For the Moors did not
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wear such though the Turks did. Of these mustachios or whiskers. I will
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not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they
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were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would
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have passed for frightful. But all this is by the bye, for as
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to my figure, I had so few to observe me that it was of
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no manner of consequence. So I say no more of that. In this
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kind of dress, I went my new journey, and was out five or
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six days. I traveled first along the seashore, directly to the place where
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I first brought my boat to an anchor to get upon the rocks. And
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having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land a
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nearer way of the same height that I was upon before. When looking forward
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to the points of the rocks which which lay out, and which I was
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obliged to double with my boat. As is said above, I was surprised
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to see the sea all smooth and quiet, no rippling, no motion,
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no current anymore than in other places. I was at a strange loss to
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understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the observing of it,
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to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it. But
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I was presently convinced how it was. That is that the tide of ebbsetting
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from the west and joining with the current of waters from some great river on
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the shore, must be the occasion for this current, and that according as
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the wind blew more forcibly from the west or from the north, this current
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came nearer or went farther from the shore. For waiting thereabouts till evening I
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went up to the rock again, and then the tide of Ebb being made,
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I plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther
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off, being near half a league from the shore, whereas in my case
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it set close upon the shore and hurried me and my canoe along with it,
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which at another time it would not have done. This observation convinced me
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that I had nothing to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of
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the tide, and I might very easily bring my boat about the island again.
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But when I began to think of putting it in practice, I had
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such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had been
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in, that I could not think of it again with any patience. But
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on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was more safe,
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though more laborious, And this was that I would build, or rather make
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me another periagua or canoe, and so have won for one side of the
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island and one for the other. You are to understand that now I had,
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as I may call it, two plantations in the island. One my
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little fortification or tent, with the wall about it under the rock, with
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the cave behind me, which by this time I had enlarged into several apartments
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or caves, one within another. One of these, which was the driest
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and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification, that
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is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all
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filled up with the large earthen pots of which I have given an account,
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and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels
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each. Where I laid up my stores of provisions, especially my corn,
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some in the ear cut off short from the straw, and the other rubbed
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out with my hand. As for my wall, made as before with long
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steaks or piles, these piles grew all like trees, and were by this
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time grown so big and spread so very much, that there was not the
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least appearance to any one's view of any habitation behind them near this dwelling of
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mine. But a little farther within the land, and upon lower ground,
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lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed,
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and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season. And whenever I
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had occasion for more corn, I had more land adjoining as fit as that.
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Besides this, I now had my country seat, and I had now
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a tolerable plantation there also. For first, I had my little bower,
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as I called it, which I kept in repair, that is to say,
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I kept the hedge which encircled it constantly fitted up to its usual height,
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the latter always standing on the inside. I kept the trees, which
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at first were no more than steaks, but were now grown very firm and
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tall, always cut so that they might spread and grow thick and wild,
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and make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind.
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In the middle of this, I had my tent, always standing, being
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a piece of a sail, spread over poles, set up for that purpose,
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and which never wanted any repair or renewing. And under this I made
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me a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed,
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and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such
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as belonged to our sea bedding, which I had saved in a great watchcoat
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to cover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from
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my chief seat, I took up my country habitation. Adjoining to this,
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I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my goats,
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and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this
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ground. I was so anxious to see it kept entire lest the goats should
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break through, that I never left off till with infinite labor, I had
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stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small steaks, and so nearer
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one to another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and
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there was scarce room to put a hand through between them, which, afterwards,
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when these stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season,
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made the enclosure strong like a wall, indeed stronger than any wall.
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This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared
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no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support. For
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I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures. Thus at my end
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would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese for
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me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be
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forty years, And that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting
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my enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of keeping them together,
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which by this method indeed I so effectually secured that when these little steaks
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began to grow, I had planted them so very thick that I was forced
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to pull some of them up again. In this place, also I had
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my grapes growing, which I principally depended on for my winter store of raisins,
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and which I never failed to preserve very carefully as the best and most
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agreeable dainty of my whole diet. And indeed they were not only agreeable,
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but medicinal, wholesome, nourishing and refreshing to the last degree. As this
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was about halfway between my other habitation and the place where I had laid up
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my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my way thither, for
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I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all things about or
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belonging to her, in very good order. Sometimes I went out in her
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to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go scarcely, ever,
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above a stone's cast or two from the shore. I was so apprehensive
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of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents, or winds,
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or any other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my
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life. It happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, I
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was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore,
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which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one
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thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I
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looked round me, but I could hear nothing nor see anything. I went
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up to a rising ground to look farther. I went up the shore and
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down the shore, but it was all one. I could see no other
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impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were
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any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy. But
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there was no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a
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foot toes heel, in every part of a foot. How it came thither
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I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine. But after innumerable
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fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confus used and out of myself, I
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came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say the ground.
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I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at
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every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every
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stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to describe
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how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me, how many wild
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ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies
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came into my thoughts. By the way, when I came to my castle,
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for so I think I called it. Ever after this I fled into
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it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the latter as first contrived,
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or went in at the hole in the rock which I had called a
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door, I cannot remember no, nor could I remember the next morning,
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for never frightened hair fled to cover or fox to earth with more terror of
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mind than I to this retreat. I slept none that night. The farther
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I was from the occasion of my fright the greater my apprehensions were, which
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is something contrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual
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practice of all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed with my own
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frightful ideas of the thing that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself,
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even though I was now a great way off. Sometimes I fancied it must
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be the devil, and reason joined in with me in this supposition, For
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how could any other thing in human shape come into the place? Where was
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the vessel that brought them? What marks were there of any other footstep?
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And how was it possible a man should come there? But then to think
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that Satan should take human shape upon him in such a place where there could
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be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his
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foot behind him, And that even for no purpose, too, for he
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could not be sure I should see it. This was an amusement. The
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other way, I considered that the devil might have found out abundance of other
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ways to have terrified me than this of this single print of a foot,
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that as I lived quite on the other side of the island, he would
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never have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where it
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was ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not, and
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in the sand, too, which the first surge of the sea upon a
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high wind would have defaced entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself,
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and with all the notions that we usually entertain of the subtlety of the
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devil. Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all
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apprehensions of its being the devil. And I presently concluded then that it must
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be some more dangerous creature, that is, that it must be some of
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the savages of the mainland opposite, who had wandered out to sea in their
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canoes, and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had made
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the island and had been on shore, but were now gone away to see,
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being as loath perhaps to have stayed in this desolate island as I would
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have been to have had them. While these reflections were rolling in my mind,
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I was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not
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to be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat,
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by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place
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and perhaps have searched farther from me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about
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their having found out my boat, and that there were people here, and
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that if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers and
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devour me. That if it should happen that they should not find me,
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yet, they would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry
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away all my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for
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mere want. Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former
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confidence in God which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of
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His goodness, As if he that had fed me by miracle, hitherto could
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not preserve by his power the provision which he had made for me by his
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goodness. I reproached myself, with my laziness, that would not sow any
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more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as
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if no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the
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ground. And this I thought so just a reproof that I resolved for the
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future to have two or three years corn beforehand, so that whatever might come
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I might not perish for want of bread. A strange, a checker work
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of providence is the life of a man. And by what secret different springs
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are the affections hurried about as different circumstances present. Today we love what tomorrow
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we hate. Today we seek what tomorrow we shun. Today we desire what
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tomorrow we fear, nay even tremble at the apprehensions of This was exemplified in
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me at this time in the most lively manner imaginable, for I, whose
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only affliction was that I seemed banished from human society, that I was alone
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circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what
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I call silent life, that I was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy
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to be numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of his
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creatures. That to have seen one of my own species would have seemed to
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me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest blessing that Heaven
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itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation could bestow. I say that
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I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was
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ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a
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man having at his foot in the island. Such is the uneven state of
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human life, and it afforded me a great many curious speculations. Afterwards,
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when I had a little recovered my first surprise, I considered that this was
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the station of life. The infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined
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for me. That, as I could not foresee what the ends of divine
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wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute his sovereignty,
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who, as I was his creature, had an undoubted right by creation
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to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit, and who,
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as I was a creature that had offended him, had likewise a judicial right
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to condemn me to what punishment he thought fit, and that it was my
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part to bear his indignation because I had sinned against him. I then reflected
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that as God, who was not only righteous but omnipotent, had thought fit
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thus to punish and afflict me, so he was able to deliver me,
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that if he did not think fit to do so, it was my unquestioned
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duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his will. And on the other
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hand, it was my duty also to hope in him, pray to him,
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and quietly to attend to the dictates and directions of his daily providence.
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These thoughts took up many hours of mine days, nay, I may say
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weeks and months. And one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I
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cannot omit. One morning, early, lying in my bed and filled with
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thoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages. I found it discomposed me
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very much, upon which these words of scripture came into my thoughts. Call
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upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver Thee, and
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thou shalt glorify me. Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed,
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my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray
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earnestly to God for deliverance. When I had done praying, I took up
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my Bible, and, opening it to read, the first words that presented
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to me were, wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer,
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and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.
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It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me. In answer,
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I thankfully laid down the book and was no more said, at least on
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that occasion. In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections,
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it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera
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of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own
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foot when I came on shore from my boat. This cheered me up a
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little too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion,
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that it was nothing else but my own foot, and why might I not
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come that way from the boat as well? As I was going that way
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to the boat. Again. I considered also that I could by no means
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tell for certain where I had trod and where I had not, and that
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if at last this was the only print of my own foot, I had
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played the part of those fools who tried to make stories of specters and apparitions,
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and then are frightened at them more than anybody. Now I began to
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take courage and to peep abroad again, for I had not stirred out of
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my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to starve for
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provisions, for I had little or nothing with indoors, but some barley cakes
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and water. Then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too,
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which usually was my evening diversion, and the poor creatures were in great pain
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and inconvenience for want of it, and indeed it almost spoiled some of them,
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and almost dried up their milk. Encouraging myself. Therefore, with the
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belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet,
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and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I
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began to go abroad again and went to my country house to milk my flock.
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But to see with what fear I went forward how often I looked behind
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me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket
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and run for my life. It would have made anyone have thought I was
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haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frightened,
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And so indeed I had. However, I went down thus two or
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three days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder,
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and to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination.
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But I could not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to
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the shore again and see this print of a foot, and measure it by
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my own and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might
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be assured that it was my own foot. But when I came to the
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place first, it appeared evidently to me that when I laid up my boat,
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I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts. Secondly, when I
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came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not
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so large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new
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imaginations, and gave me the vapors again to the highest degree, so that
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I shook with cold like one in an ague, and I went home again,
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filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there,
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or in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be
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surprised before I was aware. And what course to take for my security I
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knew, not, oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear.
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It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their
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relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down my enclosures
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and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the enemy should
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find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the same or the
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like booty. Then the simple thing of digging up my two cornfields, lest
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they should find such a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the
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island. Then to demolish my bower and tent, that they might not see
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any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to look farther in order to find
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out the person's inhabiting. These were the subject of the first night's cogitations.
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After I was home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind
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were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapors. Thus fear
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of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when apparent to the
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eyes. And we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the evil
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which we are anxious about. And what was worse than all this, I
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had not that relief in this trouble that from the resignation I used to practice
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I hoped to have. I looked. I thought like Saul, who complained
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not only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken him.
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For I did not now take due ways to compose my mind by crying
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to God in my distress and resting upon his providence as I had done before
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for my defense and deliverance, which if I had done, I had at
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least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it
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with more resolution. This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night.
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But in the morning I fell asleep, and, having by the amusement of
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my mind, been as it were, tired and my spirits exhausted, I
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slept very soundly and waked much better composed than I had ever been before.
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And now I began to think sedately, and upon debate with myself, I
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concluded that this island, which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful, and no
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farther from the mainland than as I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned,
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as I might imagine. That although there were no stated inhabitants who lived
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on the spot yet, that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore,
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who, either with design or perhaps never, but when they were driven
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by cross winds, might come to this place. That I had lived there
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fifteen years now and not met with the least shadow or figure of any people
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yet, and that if at any time they should be driven here, it
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was probable they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing that
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they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion. That the most
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I could suggest any danger from was from any casual accidental landing of straggling people
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from the main who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither,
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were here against their wills. So they made no stay here, but
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went off again with all possible speed, seldom staying one night on shore lest
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they should not have the help of the tides and daylight back again. And
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that therefore I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat in
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case I should see any savages land upon the spot. Now I began sorely
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to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bring a door
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through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond where my
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fortification joined to the rock. Upon maturely considering them, therefore, I resolved
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to draw me a second fortification, in the manner of a semicircle, at
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a distance from my wall, just where I had planted a double row of
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trees about twelve years before, of which I made mentioned. These trees,
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having been planted so thick before, they wanted but few piles to be driven
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between them, that they might be thicker and stronger, and my wall would
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be soon finished. So that I now had a double wall, and my
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outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables and everything I could
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think of to make it strong, having in its seven little holes about as
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big as I might put my arm out at In the inside of this I
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thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, with continually bringing earth out of
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my cave and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon
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it, and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of
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which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out of the ship.
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These I planted like my cannon, and I fitted them into frames that
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held them like a carriage, so that I could fire all the seven guns
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in two minutes time. This wall I was many a weary month in finishing,
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and yet never thought myself safe till it was done. When this was
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done, I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great length
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everyway as full with steaks or sticks of the ossier like wood which I had
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found so apt to grow, as they could well stand, insomuch that I
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believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large
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space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see my
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enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees if they attempted
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to approach my outer wall. Thus, in two years time I had a
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thick grove, and in five or six years time I had a wood before
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my dwelling, growing so monstrously thick and strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable,
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and no men of what kindsoever could ever imagine that there was anything beyond
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it, much less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to
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myself to go in and out, for I left no avenue, it was
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by setting two ladders, one to a part of the rock which was low,
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and then broke in, and left room to place another ladder upon that,
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so that when the two ladders were taken down, no man living could
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come down to me without doing himself mischief. And if they had come down,
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they were still on the outside of my outer wall. Thus I took
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all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own preservation, and it will
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be seen at length that they were not altogether without just reason, though I
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foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere fear suggested to me. End
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of Chapter eleven.