wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain; but as I
was sowing, it casually occurred to my thought, that I would not sow it
all at first, because I did not know when was the proper time for it; so
I sowed about two thirds of the seeds, leaving about a handful of each.
It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so; for not one grain
of that I sowed this time came to any thing; for the dry months
following, the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had
no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all, till the wet
season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been newly sown.
Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined was by the
drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground to make another trial
in; and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest
of my seed in February, a little before the vernal equinox; and this,
having the rainy months of March and April to water it, sprung up very
pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having part of the seed
left only, and not daring to sow all that I had yet, I had but a small
quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of
each kind.
But by this experience I was made master of my business, and knew
exactly when the proper season was to sow; and that I might expect two
seed-times, and two harvests, every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery, which was of use
to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over, and the weather began
to settle, which was about the month of November, I made a visit up the
country to my bower, where though I had not been some months, yet I
found all things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge that I
had made, was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cut
off of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out, and grown
with long branches, as much as a willow tree usually shoots the first
year after lopping its head. I could not tell what tree to call it that
these stakes were cut from. I was surprised, and yet very well pleased,
to see the young trees grow; and I pruned them, and led them up to grow
as much alike as I could; and it is scarce credible, how beautiful a
figure they grew into in three years; so that though the hedge made a
circle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such I
might now call them, soon covered it; and it was a, complete shade,
sufficient to lodge under all the dry season.
This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make me an hedge like
this in a semicircle round my wall, I mean that of my first dwelling,
which I did; and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at above
eight yards distance from my first fence, they grew presently, and were
at first a fine cover to my habitation, and afterwards served for a
defence also, as I shall observe in its order.
I found now, that the seasons of the year might generally be divided,
not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and
the dry seasons, which were generally thus:
Half February, } Rainy, the sun being then on, or near,
March, } the equinox.
Half April, }
Half April, }
May, } Dry, the sun being then to the north
June, } of the line.
July, }
Half August, }
September,}
Half October, } Rain, the sun being then come back.
Half October, }
November, }
December, } Dry, the sun being then to the south
January, } of the line.
Half February, }
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as the winds happened
to blow; but this was the general observation I made. After I had found,
by experience, the ill consequence of being abroad in the rain, I took
care to furnish myself with provision beforehand, that I might not be
obliged to go out; and I sat within doors as much as possible during the
wet months.
In this time I found much employment, (and very suitable also to the
time) for I found great occasion of many things which I had no way to
furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant application;
particularly, I tried many ways to make myself a basket; but all the
twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle, that they would do
nothing. It proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a
boy I used to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker’s in the
town where my father lived, to see them make their wicker-ware; and
being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer
of the manner how they worked those things, and sometimes lent an hand,
I had by this means so full knowledge of the methods of it, that I
wanted nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind, that the
twigs of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew, might possibly
be as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers, in England; and I
resolved to try.
Accordingly the next day I went to my country-house, as I called it, and
cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as
I could desire; whereupon I came the next time prepared with an hatchet
to cut down a quantity, which I soon found, for there was a great plenty
of them: these I set up to dry within my circle or hedges; and when they
were fit for use, I carried them to my cave; and here during the next
season I employed myself in making (as well as I could) a great many
baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing, as I had
occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made
them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; and thus afterwards I took
care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed I made
more; especially I made strong deep baskets to place my corn in, instead
of sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it,
I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two wants. I had
no vessels to hold any thing that was liquid, except two rundlets, which
were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the common
size, and others which were case-bottles square, for the holding of
waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil any thing in,
except a great kettle which I saved out of the ship, and which was too
big for such uses as I desired it for, viz. to make broth, and stew a
bit of meat by itself. The second thing I would fain have had, was a
tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible for me to make one; however, I found
a contrivance for that too at last.
I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes of piles, and in
this wicker-work, all the summer, or dry season; when another business
took me up more time than it could be imagined I could spare.
I mentioned before, that I had a great mind to see the whole island,
and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my
bower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of
the island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea shore on
that side. So taking my gun and hatchet, and my dog, and a larger
quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a
great bunch of raisins in my pouch, for my store, I began my journey.
When I had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within
view of the sea, to the west; and it being a very clear day, I fairly
descried land, whether an island or continent I could not tell; but it
lay very high, extending from the west to the W.S.W. at a very great
distance; by my guess it could not be less than fifteen or twenty
leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than
that I knew it must be part of America; and, as I concluded by all my
observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all
inhabited by savages, where if I should have landed, I had been in a
worse condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the
dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own, and to believe,
ordered every thing for the best; I say, I quieted my mind with this,
and left afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered, that if this
land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, see
some vessels pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was
the savage coast between the Spanish country and Brasil, which were
indeed the worst of savages; for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and
fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their
hands. With these considerations I walked very leisurely forward. I
found that side of the island where I now was, much pleasanter than
mine, the open or savanna fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass,
and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain would
I have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught
it to speak to me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot;
for I knocked it down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought
it home, but it was some years before I could make him speak. However,
at last I taught him to call me by my name very familiarly: but the
accident that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in
its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey: I found in the low
grounds, hares, as I thought them to be, and foxes, but they differed
greatly from all the other kinds I had met with; nor could I satisfy
myself to eat them, though I killed several: but I had no need to be
venturous; for I had no want of food, and of that which was very good
too; especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle or
tortoise; which added to my grapes. Leadenhall-market could not have
furnished a better table than I, in proportion to the company: and
though my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for
thankfulness, that I was not driven to any extremities for food; but
rather plenty, even to dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, or
thereabouts; but I traise this pasteook so many turns and returns, to see what
discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place where I
resolved to sit down for all night; and then either reposed myself in a
tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature could
come at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I had
taken up my lot on the worst side of the island; for here indeed the
shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side I
had found but three in a year and an half. Here was also an infinite
number of fowls of many kinds, some of which I had not seen before, and
many of them very good meat; but such as I knew not the names of except
those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of my
powder and shot: and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat, if I
could, which I could better feed on: and though there were many goats
here more than on the other side of the island, yet it was with much
more difficulty that I could come near them; the country being flat and
even, and they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine, but
yet I had not the least inclination to remove; for as I was fixed in my
habitation, it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while I was
here to be, as it were, upon a journey, and from home: however, I
travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose, about
twelve miles; and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a
mark, I concluded I would go home again; and the next journey I took
should be on the other side of the island, east from my dwelling, and so
round, till I came to my post again: of which in its place.
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could
easily keep all the island so much in my view, that I could not miss
finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself
mistaken; for being come about two or three miles, I found myself
descended into a very large valley; but so surrounded with hills, and
those hills covered with woods, that I could not see which was my way by
any direction but that of the sun; nor even then, unless I knew very
well the position of the sun at that time of the day.
It happened, to my farther misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for
three or four days, while I was in this valley; and not being able to
see the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last was
obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the
same way I went; and then by easy journies I turned homeward, the
weather being exceeding hot; and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other
things, very heavy.
In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and I
running in to take hold of it, caught it, and saved it alive from the
dog. I had a great mind to bring it home, if I could; for I had often
been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so
raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and
shot should be spent.
I made a collar for this little creature, and with a string which I made
of some rope-yarn, which I always carried about me, I led him along,
though with some difficulty, till I came to my bower, and there I
enclosed him, and left him; for I was very impatient to be at home, from
whence I had been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old
hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed: this little wandering journey,
without a settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me that my
own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me,
compared to that; and it rendered every thing about me so comfortable,
that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again, while it
should be my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long
journey; during which, most of the time was taken up in the weighty
affair of making a cage for my Pol, who began now to be a mere domestic,
and to be mighty well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the
poor kid, which I had pent in within my little circle, and resolved to
go and fetch it home, and give it some food; accordingly I went, and
found it where I left it; for indeed it could not get out, but was
almost starved for want of food; I went and cut boughs of trees and
branches of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and having
fed it, I tied it as I did before to lead it away; but it was so tame
with being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it; for it followed
me like a dog; and as I continually fed it, the creature became so
loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time one of my
domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the
30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being the
anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there two
years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came
there. I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of
the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended
with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I
gave humble and hearty thanks, that God had been pleased to discover to
me even that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary
condition than I should have been in a liberty of society, and in all
the pleasures of the world: that he could fully make up to me the
deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human society, by his
presence, and the communication of his grace to my soul, supporting,
comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, and
hope for his eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy the life I
now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked,
cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days; and now,
having changed both my sorrows and my joys, my very desires altered, my
affections changed their gust, and my delights were perfectly new from
what they were at first coming, or indeed for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing the
country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me
on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the
woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in; and how I was a prisoner,
locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an
uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatest
composures of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and
made me wring my hands, and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take
me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh,
and look upon the ground for an hour or two together, and this was still
worse to me; for if I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by
words, it would go off; and the grief, having exhausted itself,
would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts; I daily read the
word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. One
morning being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, “I will
never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee!” Immediately it occurred,
that these words were to me, why else should they be directed in such a
manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one
forsaken of God and man? “Well then,” said I, “if God does not forsake
me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the
world should all forsake me; seeing, on the other hand, if I had all the
world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no
comparison in the loss?”
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that it was possible
for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition, than it
was probable I should have ever been in any other particular state in
the world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for
bringing me to this place.
I know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at that thought,
and I durst not speak the words, “How canst thou be such an hypocrite,”
said I, even audibly, “to pretend to be thankful for a condition, which,
however thou mayst endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldst rather
pray heartily to be delivered from?” So I stopped there; but though I
could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely gave
thanks to God for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences,
to see the former condition, of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness,
and repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul
within me blessed God for directing my friend in England, without any
order of mine, to pack it up among my goods; and for assisting me
afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and though
I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of
my works this year as at the first, yet in general it may be observed,
that I was very seldom idle; having regularly divided my time, according
to the several daily employments that were before me; such as, first, my
duty to God, and reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart
some time for, thrice, every day: secondly, the going abroad with my gun
for food, which generally took me up three hours every morning when it
did not rain: thirdly, the ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking
what I had killed or catched for my supply; these took up great part of
the day: also it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day,
when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great
to stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I
could be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes I
changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the
morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours, which for want of
tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing that I did, took up
out of my time: for example, I was full two-and-forty days making me a
board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas two sawyers,
with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same
tree in half a day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down,
because my board was to be a broad one. The tree I was three days a
cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a
log, or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced
both the sides of it into chips, till it began to be light enough to
move; then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat, as a
board, from end to end: then turning that side downward, cut the other
side till I brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth
on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece
of work; but labour and patience carried me through that and many other
things; I only observe this in particular, to shew the reason why so
much of my time went away with so little work, viz. that what might be a
little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and required a
prodigious time to do alone, and by hand.
But notwithstanding this, with patience and labour, I went through many
things, and indeed ever thing that my circumstances made necessary for
me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of
barley and rice. The ground I had manured or dug up for them was not
great; for, as I observed, my seed of each, was not above the quantity
of half a peck; for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry
season; but now my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I found I
was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which
it was scarce possible to keep from it; as first, the goats, and wild
creatures which I called hares, which, tasting the sweetness of the
blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and ate it so
close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalks.
This I saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure about it with a
hedge, which I did with a great deal of toil; and the more, because it
required a great deal of speed; the creatures daily spoiling my corn.
However, as my arable land was but small, suited to my crop, I got it
totally well fenced in about three weeks time, and shooting some of the
creatures in the day-time, I set my dog to guard it in the night, tying
him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night
long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn
grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so
the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear; for
going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop
surrounded with fowls of I know not how many sorts, which stood as it
were watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them
(for I always had my gun with me.) I had no sooner shot, but there arose
up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among the
corn itself.
This touched me sensibly; for I foresaw, that in a few days they would
devour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never be able to
raise a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell: however, I
resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I should watch it
night and day. In the first place, I went among it to see what damage
was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but
that, as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great, but
the remainder was like to be a good crop, if it could be saved.