CHAPTER VIII--SURVEYS HIS POSITION
I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island, andthat 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 theisland. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on thatside; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity ofpowder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a great bunch ofraisins in my pouch for my store, I began my journey. When I had passedthe vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of the sea tothe west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land--whetheran island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very high,extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great distance; by my guessit could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise thanthat I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all myobservations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was allinhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worsecondition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositionsof Providence, which I began now to own and to believe ordered everythingfor the best; I say I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflictingmyself with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered that if thisland was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, seesome vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was thesavage coast between the Spanish country and Brazils, where are found theworst of savages; for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and fail not tomurder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands.
With these considerations, I walked very leisurely forward. I found thatside of the island where I now was much pleasanter than mine--the open orsavannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of veryfine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caughtone, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak tome. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I knockedit down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home; but itwas some years before I could make him speak; however, at last I taughthim to call me by 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 groundshares (as I thought them to be) and foxes; but they differed greatly fromall the other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy myself to eatthem, though I killed several. But I had no need to be venturous, for Ihad no want of food, and of that which was very good too, especiallythese three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise, whichadded to my grapes, Leadenhall market could not have furnished a tablebetter than I, in proportion to the company; and though my case wasdeplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was notdriven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even todainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, orthereabouts; but I took so many turns and re-turns to see whatdiscoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place where Iresolved to sit down all night; and then I either reposed myself in atree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in theground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature couldcome at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I hadtaken up my lot on the worst side of the island, for here, indeed, theshore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side Ihad found but three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinitenumber of fowls of many kinds, some which I had seen, and some which Ihad not seen before, and many of them very good meat, but such as I knewnot the names of, except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of my powderand 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, morethan on my side the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that Icould come near them, the country being flat and even, and they saw memuch sooner than when I was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine; but yetI had not the least inclination to remove, for as I was fixed in myhabitation it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while I was hereto be as it were upon a journey, and from home. However, I travelledalong the shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose about twelvemiles, and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, Iconcluded I would go home again, and that the next journey I took shouldbe on the other side of the island east from my dwelling, and so roundtill I came to my post again.
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could easilykeep all the island so much in my view that I could not miss finding myfirst dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself mistaken, forbeing come about two or three miles, I found myself descended into a verylarge valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered withwood, that I could not see which was my way by any direction but that ofthe sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the position of the sunat that time of the day. It happened, to my further misfortune, that theweather proved hazy for three or four days while I was in the valley, andnot being able to see the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably, andat last was obliged to find the seaside, look for my post, and come backthe same way I went: and then, by easy journeys, I turned homeward, theweather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and otherthings 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 thedog. I had a great mind to bring it home if I could, for I had oftenbeen musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and soraise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder andshot should be all spent. I made a collar for this little creature, andwith a string, which I made of some rope-yam, which I always carriedabout me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to mybower, and there I enclosed him and left him, for I was very impatient tobe 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 oldhutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering journey,without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my ownhouse, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me comparedto that; and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that Iresolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be mylot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my longjourney; during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affairof making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and tobe well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid whichI had penned in within my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch ithome, or give it some food; accordingly I went, and found it where I leftit, for indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want offood. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as Icould find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I didbefore, to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I hadno need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and as Icontinually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and sofond, that it became from that time one of my domestics also, and wouldnever leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being theanniversary 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 manywonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with, andwithout which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I gavehumble and hearty thanks that God had been plea
sed to discover to me thatit was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than Ishould have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures ofthe world; that He could fully make up to me the deficiencies of mysolitary state, and the want of human society, by His presence and thecommunications of His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, andencouraging me to depend upon His providence here, and hope for Hiseternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life Inow led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked,cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days; and now Ichanged both my sorrows and my joys; my very desires altered, myaffections changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new fromwhat they were at my first coming, or, indeed, for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for viewing thecountry, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon meon a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of thewoods, 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 uninhabitedwilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatest composureof my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and make me wringmy hands and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middleof my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon theground for an hour or two together; and this was still worse to me, forif I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by words, it would gooff, and the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts: I daily read theword of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. Onemorning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I willnever, never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Immediately it occurred thatthese words were to me; why else should they be directed in such amanner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as oneforsaken of God and man? "Well, then," said I, "if God does not forsakeme, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though theworld should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all theworld, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be nocomparison in the loss?"
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible forme to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it wasprobable I should ever have been in any other particular state in theworld; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God forbringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something shockedmy mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words. "How canstthou become such a hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend to bethankful for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to becontented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?"So I stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God for beingthere, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, bywhatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my life,and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, orshut it, but my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friendin England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods, andfor 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 thoughI have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of myworks this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed that Iwas very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time according tothe several daily employments that were before me, such as: first, myduty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apartsome time for thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with my gunfor food, which generally took me up three hours in every morning, whenit did not rain; thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving, and cookingwhat I had killed or caught for my supply; these took up great part ofthe 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 tostir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time Icould be supposed to work in, with this exception, that sometimes Ichanged 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 exceedinglaboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of tools, wantof help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out of my time. Forexample, I was full two and forty days in making a board for a longshelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their toolsand a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half aday.
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. This tree I was three days incutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to alog or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reducedboth 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 fromend to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the other side til Ibrought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on bothsides. 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 show the reason why so much of mytime went away with so little work--viz. that what might be a little tobe done with help and tools, was a vast labour and required a prodigioustime to do alone, and by hand. But notwithstanding this, with patienceand labour I got through everything that my circumstances made necessaryto me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop ofbarley and rice. The ground I had manured and dug up for them was notgreat; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity ofhalf 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 indanger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it wasscarcely possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and wildcreatures which I called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade,lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so close, thatit could get no time to shoot up into stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with ahedge; which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more, because itrequired speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to mycrop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks' time; andshooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I set my dog to guard itin the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would standand bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook theplace, 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, sothe 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 cropsurrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who stood, as itwere, 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 rose upa little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among the cornitself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they woulddevour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never be able to raisea crop at all; and what to do I could not tell; however, I resolved notto lose my corn, if possible, though I should watch it night and day. Inthe first place, I went among it to see what damage was already done, andfound they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that as it was yet toogreen for them, the loss was not so great but that the remainder waslikely to be a good crop if it could be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily seethe thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waitedtill I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as I walkedoff, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight than theydr
opped down one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked, that Icould not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that everygrain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me inthe consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killedthree of them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and servedthem as we serve notorious thieves in England--hanged them in chains, fora terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this should havesuch an effect as it had, for the fowls would not only not come at thecorn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and Icould never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hungthere. This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latterend of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I reaped mycorn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and all Icould do was to make one, as well as I could, out of one of thebroadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship.However, as my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to cutit down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I cut nothing off but theears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and sorubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my harvesting, I foundthat out of my half-peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, andabout two bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my guess, forI had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that, intime, it would please God to supply me with bread. And yet here I wasperplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal of my corn,or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how tomake bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it.These things being added to my desire of having a good quantity forstore, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any ofthis crop but to preserve it all for seed against the next season; and inthe meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplishthis great work of providing myself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. I believe fewpeople have thought much upon the strange multitude of little thingsnecessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, andfinishing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my dailydiscouragement; and was made more sensible of it every hour, even after Ihad got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I have said, came upunexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth--no spade or shovel to digit. Well, this I conquered by making me a wooden spade, as I observedbefore; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it costme a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only woreout soon, but made my work the harder, and made it be performed muchworse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out withpatience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the cornwas sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and draga great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may becalled, rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing, and grown, Ihave observed already how many things I wanted to fence it, secure it,mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff,and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it sieves to dress it, yeastand salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it; but all thesethings I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn was aninestimable comfort and advantage to me too. All this, as I said, madeeverything laborious and tedious to me; but that there was no help for.Neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided it, acertain part of it was every day appointed to these works; and as I hadresolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantityby me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour andinvention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing allthe operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it, fit for myuse.