CHAPTER XI--FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S FOOT ON THE SAND
It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my little family sitdown to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and lord of the wholeisland; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; Icould hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among allmy subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone,attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was theonly person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now grown old andcrazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always atmy right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on theother, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especialfavour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first, forthey were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation bymy own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I know not what kind ofcreature, these were two which I had preserved tame; whereas the rest ranwild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last, for theywould often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last I wasobliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length they left me.With this attendance and in this plentiful manner I lived; neither couldI be said to want anything but society; and of that, some time afterthis, I was likely to have too much.
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of myboat, though very loath to run any more hazards; and therefore sometimesI sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times Isat myself down contented enough without her. But I had a strangeuneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island where, as Ihave said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shore lay,and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do: thisinclination increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved totravel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I did so; buthad any one in England met such a man as I was, it must either havefrightened him, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as I frequentlystood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at the notion of mytravelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a dress.Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows.
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flaphanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rainoff from running into my neck, nothing being so hurtful in these climatesas the rain upon the flesh under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about themiddle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; thebreeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung downsuch a length on either side that, like pantaloons, it reached to themiddle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pairof somethings, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flapover my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes, but of a mostbarbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together withtwo thongs of the same instead of buckles, and in a kind of a frog oneither side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw anda hatchet, one on one side and one on the other. I had another belt notso broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder,and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made ofgoat's skin too, in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot.At my back I carried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and over myhead a great clumsy, ugly, goat's-skin umbrella, but which, after all,was the most necessary thing I had about me next to my gun. As for myface, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expectfrom a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or tendegrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it wasabout a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors and razorssufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip,which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as Ihad seen worn by some Turks at Sallee, for the Moors did not wear such,though the Turks did; of these moustachios, or whiskers, I will not saythey were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a lengthand shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would have passed forfrightful.
But all this is by-the-bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to observeme that it was of no manner of consequence, so I say no more of that. Inthis kind of dress I went my new journey, and was out five or six days.I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the place where Ifirst brought my boat to an anchor to get upon the rocks; and having noboat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearer way to the sameheight that I was upon before, when, looking forward to the points of therocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to double with my boat, asis said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet--norippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in other places. Iwas at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some timein the observing it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide hadoccasioned it; but I was presently convinced how it was--viz. that thetide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of watersfrom some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current,and that, according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west or fromthe north, this current came nearer or went farther from the shore; for,waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and thenthe tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before,only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore,whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and mycanoe along with it, which at another time it would not have done.
This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to observe theebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring my boatabout the island again; but when I began to think of putting it inpractice, I had such terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of thedanger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with anypatience, but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which wasmore safe, though more laborious--and this was, that I would build, orrather make, me another periagua or canoe, and so have one for one sideof the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, two plantationsin the island--one my little fortification or tent, with the wall aboutit, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time I hadenlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One ofthese, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond mywall or fortification--that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to therock--was all filled up with the large earthen pots of which I have givenan account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would holdfive or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of provisions,especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw, andthe other rubbed out with my hand.
As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those pilesgrew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread sovery much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view, ofany habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, andupon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept dulycultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in itsseason; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more landadjoining as fit as that.
Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerable plantationthere also; for, first, I had my little bower, as I called it, which Ikept in repair--that is to say, I kept the hedge which encircled it inconstantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always inthe inside. I kept the trees, which at first were no more than stakes,but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut, so that they mightspread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, whichthey did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had my tentalways standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up forthat purpose, and which never want
ed any repair or renewing; and underthis I had made me a squab or couch with the skins of the creatures I hadkilled, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such asbelonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved; and a great watch-coat tocover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chiefseat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say mygoats, and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence andenclose this ground. I was so anxious to see it kept entire, lest thegoats should break through, that I never left off till, with infinitelabour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, andso near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and therewas scarce room to put a hand through between them; which afterwards,when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, madethe enclosure strong like a wall, indeed stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no painsto bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support,for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my handwould be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese for me aslong as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and thatkeeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting myenclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of keeping themtogether; which by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, thatwhen these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thickthat I was forced to pull some of them up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally dependedon for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preservevery carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet;and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome,nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.
As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the placewhere I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my waythither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I kept all thingsabout or belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went out inher to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go, scarcelyever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so apprehensive ofbeing hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or anyother accident. But now I come to a new scene of my life. It happenedone day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprisedwith the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plainto be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I hadseen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hearnothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther;I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could seeno other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if therewere any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there wasno room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot--toes, heel,and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I inthe least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a manperfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification,not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the lastdegree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking everybush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Noris it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrightedimagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were foundevery moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies cameinto my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle (for so I think I called it ever after this), Ifled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, asfirst contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I had called adoor, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning, fornever frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror ofmind than I to this retreat.
I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of myfright, the greater my apprehensions were, which is something contrary tothe nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice of allcreatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideasof the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself,even though I was now a great way off. Sometimes I fancied it must bethe devil, and reason joined in with me in this supposition, for howshould any other thing in human shape come into the place? Where was thevessel that brought them? What marks were there of any other footstep?And how was it possible a man should come there? But then, to think thatSatan should take human shape upon him in such a place, where there couldbe no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his footbehind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could not be sure Ishould see it--this was an amusement the other way. I considered thatthe devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrifiedme than this of the single print of a foot; that as I lived quite on theother side of the island, he would never have been so simple as to leavea mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one whether I should eversee it or not, and in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea,upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely. All this seemedinconsistent with the thing itself and with all the notions we usuallyentertain of the subtlety of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of allapprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concluded then thatit must be some more dangerous creature--viz. that it must be some of thesavages of the mainland opposite who had wandered out to sea in theircanoes, and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had madethe island, and had been on shore, but were gone away again to sea; beingas loath, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as I would havebeen to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very thankful inmy thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time, orthat they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded thatsome inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched fartherfor me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about their havingfound out my boat, and that there were people here; and that, if so, Ishould certainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me;that if it should happen that they should not find me, yet they wouldfind my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry away all my flock oftame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former confidencein God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had ofHis goodness; as if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto could notpreserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me by Hisgoodness. I reproached myself with my laziness, that would not sow anymore corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as ifno accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was uponthe ground; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for thefuture to have two or three years' corn beforehand; so that, whatevermight come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by whatsecret different springs are the affections hurried about, as differentcircumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day weseek 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 onlyaffliction was that I seemed banished from human society, that I wasalone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, andcondemned to what I call silent life; that I was as one whom Heaventhought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear amongthe rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species wouldhave seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatestblessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation,could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensionsof seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadowor 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 manycurious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my firstsurprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitelywise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I couldnot foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I wasnot to dispute His sovereignty; who, as I was His creature, had anundoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely asHe thought fit; and who, as I was a creature that had offended Him, hadlikewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thoughtfit; and that it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because Ihad sinned against Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not onlyrighteous 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, itwas my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to Hiswill; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in Him, pray toHim, and quietly to attend to the dictates and directions of His dailyprovidence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeks andmonths: and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion Icannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed, and filled withthoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found itdiscomposed me very much; upon which these words of the Scripture cameinto my thoughts, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliverthee, and thou shalt glorify Me." Upon this, rising cheerfully out of mybed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged topray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I had done praying I took upmy Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to mewere, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthenthy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impossible to express thecomfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the book, andwas no more sad, at least on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, itcame into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of myown, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came onshore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began topersuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but myown foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as Iwas going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also that I could byno means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and thatif, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played thepart 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 notstirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began tostarve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but somebarley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be milkedtoo, which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor creatures werein great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almostspoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk. Encouragingmyself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print ofone of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my ownshadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country house to milkmy flock: but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I lookedbehind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket andrun for my life, it would have made any one have thought I was hauntedwith an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terriblyfrightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I went down thus two orthree days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, andto think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but Icould not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to theshore again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, andsee if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be assured itwas my own foot: but when I came to the place, first, it appearedevidently to me, that when I laid up my boat I could not possibly be onshore anywhere thereabouts; secondly, when I came to measure the markwith my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Boththese things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me thevapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook with cold like onein an ague; and I went home again, filled with the belief that some manor men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island wasinhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware; and what courseto take for my security I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! Itdeprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for theirrelief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down myenclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest theenemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of thesame or the like booty: then the simple thing of digging up my twocorn-fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still beprompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent, thatthey might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to lookfarther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night's cogitations after I was comehome again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind werefresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours. Thus, fear of danger isten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent tothe eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by much, than theevil which we are anxious about: and what was worse than all this, I hadnot that relief in this trouble that from the resignation I used topractise I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complainednot only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsakenhim; for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to Godin 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 beenmore cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carriedthrough it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the morningI fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been as it weretired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and waked muchbetter composed than I had ever been before. And now I began to thinksedately; and, upon debate with myself, I concluded that this island(which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from themainland than as I had seen) was not so entirely abandoned as I mightimagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on thespot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who,either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by crosswinds, might come to this place; that I had lived there fifteen years nowand had not met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; andthat, if at any time they should be driven here, it was probable theywent away again as soon as ever they could, seeing they had never thoughtfit to fix here upon any occasion; that the most I could suggest anydanger from was from any casual accidental landing of straggling peoplefrom the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, werehere against their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off againwith all possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lest theyshould not have the help of the tides and daylight back again; and that,therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, incase 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 bringa door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond where myfortification joined to the rock: upon maturely considering this,therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the manner ofa semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted adouble row of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mention:these trees having been planted so thick before, they wanted but fewpiles 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; andmy outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, andeverything I could think of, to make it strong; having in it seven littleholes, about as big as I
might put my arm out at. In the inside of thisI thickened my wall to about ten feet thick with continually bringingearth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walkingupon it; and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, ofwhich I took notice that I had got seven on shore out of the ship; theseI planted like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that held themlike 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 neverthought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a greatlength 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 Ibelieve I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a prettylarge space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see anenemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if theyattempted 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 andstrong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what kindsoever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less ahabitation. 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 ofthe rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place anotherladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down no man livingcould come down to me without doing himself mischief; and if they hadcome down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my ownpreservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not altogetherwithout just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time more than mymere fear suggested to me.