day, I perceived a great number. I shot several arrows among them,
and at last one of the elephants fell, when the rest retired
immediately, and left me at liberty to go and acquaint my patron
with my success. When I had informed him, he commended my
dexterity, and caressed me highly. We went afterward together to
the forest, where we dug a hole for the elephant; my patron
designing to return when it was rotten, and take his teeth to
trade with.
I continued this employment for two months. One morning, as I
looked for the elephants, I perceived with extreme amazement that,
instead of passing by me across the forest as usual, they stopped,
and came to me with a horrible noise, in such numbers that the
plain was covered and shook under them. They surrounded the tree
in which I was concealed, with their trunks uplifted, and all
fixed their eyes upon me. At this alarming spectacle I continued
immovable, and was so much terrified that my bow and arrows fell
out of my hand.
My fears were not without cause; for after the elephants had
stared upon me some time, one of the largest of them put his trunk
round the foot of the tree, plucked it up, and threw it on the
ground. I fell with the tree, and the elephant, taking me up with
his trunk, laid me on his back, where I sat more like one dead
than alive, with my quiver on my shoulder. He put himself at the
head of the rest, who followed him in line, one after the other,
carried me a considerable way, then laid me down on the ground,
and retired with all his companions. After having lain some time,
and seeing the elephants gone, I got up, and found I was upon a
long and broad hill, almost covered with the bones and teeth of
elephants. I doubted not but that this was the burial-place of the
elephants, and that they carried me thither on purpose to tell me
that I should forbear to kill them, as now I knew where to get
their teeth without inflicting injury on them. I did not stay on
the hill, but turned toward the city; and after having travelled a
day and a night, I came to my patron.
As soon as my patron saw me, "Ah, poor Sindbad!" exclaimed he, "I
was in great trouble to know what was become of you. I have been
at the forest, where I found a tree newly pulled up, and your bow
and arrows on the ground, and I despaired of ever seeing you more.
Pray tell me what befell you." I satisfied his curiosity, and we
both of us set out next morning to the hill. We loaded the
elephant which had carried us with as many teeth as he could bear;
and when we were returned, my master thus addressed me: "Hear now
what I shall tell you. The elephants of our forest have every year
killed us a great many slaves, whom we sent to seek ivory. For all
the cautions we could give them, those crafty animals destroyed
them one time or other. God has delivered you from their fury, and
has bestowed that favor upon you only. It is a sign that He loves
you, and has some use for your service in the world. You have
procured me incredible wealth; and now our whole city is enriched
by your means, without any more exposing the lives of our slaves.
After such a discovery, I can treat you no more as a slave, but as
a brother. God bless you with all happiness and prosperity. I
henceforth give you your liberty; I will also give you riches."
To this I replied: "Master, God preserve you. I desire no other
reward for the service I had the good-fortune to do to you and
your city but leave to return to my own country." "Very well,"
said he, "the monsoon will in a little time bring ships for ivory.
I will then send you home." I stayed with him while waiting for
the monsoon; and during that time we made so many journeys to the
hill, that we filled all our warehouses with ivory. The other
merchants who traded in it did the same, for my master made them
partakers of his good-fortune.
The ships arrived at last, and my master himself having made
choice of the ship wherein I was to embark, loaded half of it with
ivory on my account, laid in provisions in abundance for my
passage, and besides obliged me to accept a present of some
curiosities of the country of great value. After I had returned
him a thousand thanks for all his favors I went aboard. We stopped
at some islands to take in fresh provisions. Our vessel being come
to a port on the mainland in the Indies, we touched there, and,
not being willing to venture by sea to Bussorah, I landed my
proportion of the ivory, resolving to proceed on my journey by
land. I realized vast sums by my ivory, bought several rarities,
which I intended for presents, and when my equipage was ready, set
out in company with a large caravan of merchants. I was a long
time on the journey, and suffered much, but was happy in thinking
that I had nothing to fear from the seas, from pirates, from
serpents, or from the other perils to which I had been exposed.
I at last arrived safe at Bagdad, and immediately waited upon the
caliph, to give him an account of my embassy. He loaded me with
honors and rich presents, and I have ever since devoted myself to
my family, kindred, and friends.
Sindbad here finished the relation of his seventh and last voyage,
and then addressing himself to Hindbad, "Well, friend," said he,
"did you ever hear of any person that suffered so much as I have
done? Is it not reasonable that, after all this, I should enjoy a
quiet and pleasant life?" As he said these words, Hindbad kissed
his hand, and said, "Sir, my afflictions are not to be compared
with yours. You not only deserve a quiet life, but are worthy of
all the riches you possess, since you make so good a use of them.
May you live happily for a long time." Sindbad ordered him to be
paid another hundred sequins, and told him to give up carrying
burdens as a porter, and to eat henceforth at his table, for he
wished that he should all his life have reason to remember that he
henceforth had a friend in Sindbad the Sailor.
ROBINSON CRUSOE
Although hundreds have tried, both at home and abroad, no one has
been able to write a book that could take the place of Robinson
Crusoe, the story of that sturdy, voyaging Englishman who was
always on the lookout for adventures and was never discouraged by
any circumstances in which he found himself. The picture of the
brave captain in his hairy goatskin clothes, Poll on his shoulder,
his faithful dog by his side, and Friday following along behind,
is one that remains stamped for life on every reader's mind.
Like all great books, it interests people of all ages. To the
child it is a fascinating fairy tale; to the older boys and girls
it is a story of stirring adventure, while to the mature man it is
a picture of civilization. And so it has come to be read again and
again, and admired and cherished the world over.
Robinson Crusoe was written in 1719 by Daniel Defoe, the son of a
butcher, when he was over sixty years of age. His son deserted and
deceived him, as Robinson Crusoe deserted and deceived his father,
and it almost broke the old man's heart.
ROBINSON CRUSOE IS SHIPWRECKED
By Daniel Defoe
Having lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to
thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not only
learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance and
friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among the
merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port; and in my
discourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of
my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with
the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast
for trifles, such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits
of glass, and the like, not only gold dust, Guinea grains,
elephants' teeth, etc., but negroes, for the service of the
Brazils, in great numbers.
They listened very attentively to my discourses on these heads,
but especially to that part which related to the buying of
negroes, which was a trade at that time, not far entered into.
Being in company with some merchants and planters of my
acquaintance, and talking of things very earnestly, three of them
came to me next morning, and told me they had been musing very
much upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night, and
they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining
me secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to
go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and for
which they needed nothing so much as servants; that as it was a
trade that could not be carried on, because they could not
publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so they desired to
make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately, and
divide them among their own plantations; and, in a word, the
question was, whether I would go to manage the trading part upon
the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should have my
equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of the
stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to any one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his
own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very
considerable, and with a good stock upon it; but for me, that was
thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but to go on
as I had begun for three or four years more, and to have sent for
the other hundred pounds from England, and who in that time, and
with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth
three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing, too;
for me to think of such a voyage was the most preposterous thing
that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist
the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my
father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I
would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after
my plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as I
should direct, if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and
entered into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formal
will disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my death,
making the captain of the ship that had saved my life, as before,
my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I
had directed in my will, one-half of the produce being to himself,
and the other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and
to keep up my plantation; had I used half as much prudence to have
looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I
ought to have done and ought not to have done, I had certainly
never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, and gone upon a
voyage to sea, attended with all its hazards.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy
rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being fitted
out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement,
by my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the
lst of September, 1659, being the same day eight years that I went
from my father and mother at Hull.
Our ship was about 120 tons burden, carried six guns, and fourteen
men, besides the master, his boy, and myself; we had on board no
large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our
trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and
other trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives,
scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the
northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the
African coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern
latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of their course in those
days. We had very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way
upon our own coast, till we came to the height of Cape St.
Augustino; from whence, keeping further off at sea, we lost sight
of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fernando de
Noronha, holding our course N. E. by N., and leaving those isles
on the east. In this course we passed the line in about twelve
days' time, and were, by our last observation, in 7 degrees 22'
northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us
quite out of our knowledge. It blew in such a terrible manner,
that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive; and,
scudding away before it, let it carry us wherever fate and the
fury of the winds directed; and during these twelve days, I need
not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor did any
in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of
our men die of the calenture, and a man and a boy washed
overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,
the master made an observation as well as he could, and found that
he was in about eleven degrees of north latitude, but that he was
twenty-two degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St.
Augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of
Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon,
toward that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great River;
and now he began to consult with me what course he should take;
for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled, and he was for
going directly back to the coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the
sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited
country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle
of the Caribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for
Barbadoes; which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of
the bay or gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped,
in about fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make
our voyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance both to
our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by
W., in order to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped
for relief; but our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in
the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm
came upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity
westward, and drove us so out of the way of all human commerce
that, had all our lives been saved as to the sea, we were rather
in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our
own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men
early one morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner run out
of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabout in the
world we were, than the ship struck upon the sand, and in a
moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in
such a manner that we expected we should all have perished
immediately; and we were even driven into our close quarters, to
shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like condition
to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such
circumstances. We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it
was we were driven; whether an island or the main, whether
inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the wind was still
great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as
hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in
pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn
immediately about. In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and
expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as
preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing more
for us to do in this; that which was our present comfort, and all
the comfort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, the
ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to
abate.
Now, though we thought the wind did a little abate, yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to
expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed,
and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as
we could. We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but
she was fast staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in
the next place she broke away, and either sunk, or was driven off
to sea; so there was no hope from her. We had another boat on
board; but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing;
however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied the ship
would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she was
actually broken already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat,
and with the help of the rest of the men, they got her flung over
the ship's side; and getting all into her, we let go, and
committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and
the wild sea: for though the storm was abated considerably, yet
the sea went dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well
called _den wild zee_, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly
that the sea went so high that the boat could not escape, and that
we should be inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none,
nor, if we had, could we have done anything with it; so we worked
at the oar toward the land, though with heavy hearts, like men
going to execution; for we all knew that when the boat came near
the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach
of the sea. However, we committed our souls to God in the most
earnest manner; and the wind driving us toward the shore, we
hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we
could toward land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal,
we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least
shadow of expectation was, if we might happen into some bay or
gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we might
have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and
perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing of this appeared;
but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more
frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half,
as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling
astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the _coup de grace_.
In a word, it took us with such a fury that it overset the boat at
once; and separating us as well from the boat as from one another,
gave us not time hardly to say, "O God!" for we were all swallowed
up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I
sank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not
deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave
having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on toward the
shore, and having spent itself, went back and left me upon the
land, almost dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so
much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself
nearer the mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet, and
endeavored to make on toward the land as fast as I could, before
another wave should return and take me up again; but I soon found
it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me as
high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no
means or strength to contend with: my business was to hold my
breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so by
swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself toward the
shore if possible, my greatest concern now being that the wave, as
it would carry me a great way toward the shore when it came on,
might not carry me back again with it when it gave back toward the
sea.
The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or
thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried
with a mighty force and swiftness toward the shore a very great
way; but I held my breath and assisted myself to swim still
forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my
breath when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate
relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of
the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that I could
keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new
courage. I was covered again with water a good while, but not so
long but I held it out; and finding the water had spent itself,
and began to return, I struck forward against the return of the
waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few
moments to recover breath, and till the waters went from me, and
then took to my heels and ran with what strength I had farther
toward the shore. But neither would this deliver me from the fury
of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and twice more I
was lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before, the
shore being very flat. The last time of these two had wellnigh
been fatal to me; for the sea having hurried me along, as before,
landed me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and
that with such force as it left me senseless, and, indeed,
helpless as to my own deliverance; for the blow, taking my side
and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my body; and
had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled in
the water; but I recovered a little before the return of the
waves, and seeing I should be covered again with water, I resolved
to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if
possible, till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so
high as at first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near the
shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so
swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run I took I got
to the mainland; where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the
clifts and sat upon the grass, free from danger and quite out of
the reach of the water,
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank
God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was some
minutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible
to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the
soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very
grave: and I do not wonder now at that custom, when a malefactor,
who has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to
be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him--I say I do not
wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him bleed that
very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive
the animal spirits from the heart, and overwhelm him,
For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole
being, as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my
deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I
cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were
drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself;
for, as for them, I never saw them afterward, or any sign of them,
except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not
fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel when, the breach and froth
of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far off;
and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my
condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I
was in, and what was next to be done: and I soon found my comforts
abate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance: for I
was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat or
drink, to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me but
that of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts:
and that which was particularly afflicting to me was that I had no
weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or
to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to
kill me for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife,
a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my
provision; and this threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that
for a while I ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I
began, with a heavy heart, to consider what would be my lot if
there were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night
they always come abroad for their prey.