apprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concluded
then that it must be some more dangerous creature; viz., that it
must be some of the savages of the mainland opposite who had
wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either driven by the
currents or by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been
on shore, but were gone away again to sea; being as loath,
perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as I would have
been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very
thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be
thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by
which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in
the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terrible
thoughts racked my imagination about their having found out my
boat, and that there were people here; and that, if so, I should
certainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me;
that if it should happen that they should not find me, yet they
would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry away all
my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former
confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful
experience as I had had of His goodness; as if He that had fed me
by miracle hitherto could not preserve, by His power, the
provision which He had made for me by His goodness. I reproached
myself with my laziness, that would not sow any more corn one year
than would just serve me till the next season, as if no accident
could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the
ground; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for
the future to have two or three years' corn beforehand; so that,
whatever might come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and
by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about,
as different circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow
we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire
what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.
This was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively
manner imaginable; for I whose only affliction was that I seemed
banished from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by
the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I
call silent life; that I was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy
to be numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of
His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would have
seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest
blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of
salvation, could bestow--I say, that I should now tremble at the
very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the
ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a man having set
his foot in the island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great
many curious speculations afterwards, when I had recovered from my
first surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the
infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me;
that as I could not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might
be in all this, so I was not to dispute His sovereignty; who, as I
was His creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern
and dispose of me absolutely as He thought fit; and who, as I was
a creature that had offended Him, had likewise a judicial right to
condemn me to what punishment He thought fit; and that it was my
part to submit to bear His indignation, because I had sinned
against Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not only
righteous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish and
afflict me, so He was able to deliver me: that if He did not think
fit to do so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself
absolutely and entirely to His will; and, on the other hand, it
was my duty also to hope in Him, pray to Him, and quietly to
attend to the dictates and directions of His daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeks
and months: and one particular effect of my cogitations on this
occasion I cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed, and
filled with thoughts about my danger from the appearances of
savages, I found it discomposed me very much; upon which these
words of the Scripture came into my thoughts, "Call upon Me in the
day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify
Me." Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not
only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly
to God for deliverance; when I had done praying I took up my
Bible, and, opening it to read, the first words that presented to
me were, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall
strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impossible
to express the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid
down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and
reflections, it came into my thoughts one day that all this might,
be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print
of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me
up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a
delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might
I not come that way from the boat, as well as I was going that way
to the boat? Again, I considered also that I could by no means
tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and that
if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played
the part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres and
apparitions, and then are frightened at them more than anybody.
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had
not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights so that I
began to starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within
doors but some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats
wanted to be milked, too, which usually was my evening diversion,
and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for
want of it; and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and
almost dried up their milk. Encouraging myself, therefore, with
the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own
feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I
began to go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk my
flock; but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I
looked behind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down
my basket and run for my life, it would have made any one have
thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been
lately most terribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had.
However, I went down thus two or three days, and, having seen
nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to think there was
really nothing in it but my own imagination; but I could not
persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to the shore
again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, and
see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be
assured it was my own foot: but when I came to the place, first,
it appeared evidently to me that when I laid up my boat I could
not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts; secondly, when I
came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so
large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new
imaginations, and gave me the vapors again to the highest degree,
so that I shook with cold like one in an ague; and I went home
again, filled with the belief that some man or men had been on
shore there; or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I
might be surprised before I was aware; and what course to take for
my security I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear!
It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for
their relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw
down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the
woods, lest the enemy should find them, and then frequent the
island in prospect of the same or the like booty; then the simple
thing of digging up my two corn-fields, lest they should find such
a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the island; then
to demolish my bower and tent, that they might not see any
vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to look farther, in order
to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subjects of the first night's cogitations after I
was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun
my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapors. Thus,
fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger
itself, when apparent to the eyes, and we find the burden of
anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious
about; and what was worse than all this, I had not that relief in
this trouble that from the resignation I used to practise I hoped
to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not only
that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken him;
for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to
God in my distress, and resting upon His providence, as I had done
before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I
had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new
surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the
morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind,
been as it were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very
soundly, and waked much better composed than I had ever been
before. And now I began to think sedately; and, upon debate with
myself, I concluded that this island (which was so exceedingly
pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the mainland than as I had
seen) was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; that,
although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot,
yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who,
either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by
cross winds, might come to this place; that I had lived there
fifteen years now and had not met with the least shadow or figure
of any people yet; and that, if at any time they should be driven
here, it was probable they went away again as soon as ever they
could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here upon any
occasion; that the most I could suggest any danger from was from
any casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main,
who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here
against their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off again
with all possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lest
they should not have the help of the tides and daylight back
again; and that, therefore, I had nothing to do but consider of
some safe retreat, in case I should see any savages land upon the
spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to
bring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond
where my fortification joined to the rock; upon maturely
considering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second
fortification; in the manner of a semicircle, at a distance from
my wall, just where I had planted a double row of trees about
twelve years before, of which I made mention; these trees having
been planted so thick before, they wanted but few piles to be
driven between them, that they might be thicker and stronger, and
my wall would be soon finished. So that I had now a double wall;
and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables,
and everything I could think of, to make it strong; having in it
seven little holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In
the inside of this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick
with continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at
the foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven
holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice
that I had got seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted
like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that held them like a
carriage, so that I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes'
time; this wall I was many a weary month in finishing, and yet
never thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a
great length every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the
osier-like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well
stand; insomuch that I believe I might set in near twenty thousand
of them, leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall,
that I might have room to see an enemy, and they might have no
shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to approach my
outer wall.
Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or six
years' time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so
monstrously thick and strong that it was indeed perfectly
impassable; and no men, of what kind soever, could ever imagine
that there was anything beyond it, much less a habitation. As for
the way which I proposed to myself to go in and out (for I left no
avenue), it was by setting two ladders, one to a part of the rock
which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place another
ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down no man
living could come down to me without doing himself mischief; and
if they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer
wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my
own preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not
altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that
time more than my mere fear suggested to me.
FRIDAY RESCUED FROM THE CANNIBALS
By Daniel Defoe
I was surprised one morning by seeing no less than five canoes all
on shore together on my side the island, and the people who
belonged to them all landed and out of my sight. The number of
them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that
they always came four or six or sometimes more in a boat, I could
not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures to
attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still in my
castle perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into the
same position for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was
just ready for action if anything had presented. Having waited a
good while listening to hear if they made any noise, at length,
being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and
clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual;
standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill,
so that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed,
by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than
thirty in number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they had
meat dressed. How they had cooked it I knew not, or what it was,
but they were all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous
gestures and figures, their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective,
two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems,
they were laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I
perceived one of them immediately fall, being knocked down, I
suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was their way; and
two or three others were at work immediately, cutting him open for
their cookery, while the other victim was left standing by
himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very moment,
this poor wretch seeing himself a little at liberty and unbound,
nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away from
them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly
towards me; I mean towards that part of the coast where my
habitation was.
I was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when I perceived
him run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw him
pursued by the whole body; and now I expected that part of my
dream was coming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter
in my grove; but I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream
that the other savages would not pursue him thither and find him
there. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover
when I found that there was not above three men that followed him;
and still more was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped
them exceedingly in running, and gained ground on them; so that,
if he could but hold out for half an hour, I saw easily he would
fairly get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned
often in the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out
of the ship, and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over,
or the poor wretch would be taken there; but when the savage
escaping came thither he made nothing of it, though the tide was
then up, but, plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes,
or thereabouts, landed, and ran with exceeding strength and
swiftness.
When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two of them
could swim, but the third could not, and that, standing on the
other side, he looked at the others, but went no farther, and
soon after went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very
well for him in the end. I observed that the two who swam were yet
more than twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was
that fled from them. It came very warmly upon my thoughts, and
indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get me a servant,
and, perhaps, a companion or assistant; and that I was plainly
called by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I
immediately ran down the ladders with all possible expedition,
fetched my two guns, for they were both at the foot of the
ladders, as I observed before, and getting up again with the same
haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and
having a very short cut, and all down hill, placed myself in the
way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to him
that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much
frightened at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to
come back and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced towards the two
that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked
him down with the stock of my piece. I was loath to fire, because
I would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it would
not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke,
too, they would not have known what to make of it. Having knocked
this fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he had
been frightened, and I advanced towards him; but as I came nearer,
I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it
to shoot at me: so I was then obliged to shoot at him first,
which I did, and killed him at the first shot.
The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his
enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened
with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stock still and
neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather
inclined still to fly than to come on. I hallooed again to him,
and made signs to come forward, which he easily understood, and
came a little way; then stopped again, and then a little farther,
and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stood
trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been
sentenced to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him
again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement
that I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling
down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for
saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and
beckoned to him to come still nearer; at length he came close to
me, and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground and laid his
head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot set my foot upon
his head; this, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave
forever. I took him up and made much of him, and encouraged him
all I could.
But there was more work to do yet, for I perceived the savage whom
I had knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and
began to come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showed him the
savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me
and, though I could not understand them, yet I thought they were
pleasant to hear, for they were the first sound of a man's voice
that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years.
But there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who was
knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the
ground, and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but
when I saw that, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I
would shoot him; upon this my savage, for so I call him now, made
a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by
my side, which I did. He no sooner had it but he runs to his
enemy, and at one blow cut off his head so cleverly no executioner
in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I thought
very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a
sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords. However,
it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords
so sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even
cut off heads with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too.
When he had done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph,
and brought me the sword again, and, with abundance of gestures
which I did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the
savage that he had killed, just before me. But that which
astonished him most was to know how I killed the other Indian so
far off; so, pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to
him; and I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to him,
he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turning him first on
one side, then on the other; looked at the wound the bullet had
made, which it seems was just in his breast, where it had made a
hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled
inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows,
and came back; so I turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow
me, making sign to him that more might come after them. Upon this
he made signs to me that he should bury them with sand, that they
might not be seen by the rest, if they followed; and so I made
signs to him again to do so. He fell to work; and in an instant he
had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big enough to bury
the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and
did so by the other also; I believe he had buried them both in a
quarter of an hour. Then, calling him away, I carried him, not to
my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the
island: so I did not let my dream come to pass in that part, that
he came into my grove for shelter. Here I gave him bread and a
bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I found he
was indeed in great distress for, from his running; and, having
refreshed him, I made signs for him to go and lie down to sleep,
showing him a place where I had laid some rice-straw, and a
blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so
the poor creature lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with
straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped;
and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very
good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to
have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the
sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance, too,
especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled
like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity
and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his skin was not
quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous
tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of
America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive-color, that had
in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.
His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat, like the
negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well
set, and as white as ivory.