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