The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
things, which I thought at first it was impossible for me to make; as,
indeed, with some of them it was: for instance, I could never make a
cask to be hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before;
but I could never arrive at the capacity of making one by them, though
I spent many weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join
the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water; so I gave
that also over. In the next place, I was at a great loss for candles;
so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven
o’clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of beeswax
with which I made candles in my African adventure; but I had none of
that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had killed a goat I
saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of clay, which I baked in
the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made me a lamp; and
this gave me light, though not a clear, steady light, like a candle. In
the middle of all my labours it happened that, rummaging my things, I
found a little bag which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn
for the feeding of poultry—not for this voyage, but before, as I
suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. The little remainder of corn
that had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw
nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the
bag for some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I divided
it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks of
corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock.
It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I threw
this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so much as remembering that
I had thrown anything there, when, about a month after, or thereabouts,
I saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground,
which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was
surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time,
I saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green
barley, of the same kind as our European—nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my
thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted upon no religious
foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my
head, nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me
otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God,
without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these
things, or His order in governing events for the world. But after I saw
barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn,
and especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled me
strangely, and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused His
grain to grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so
directed purely for my sustenance on that wild, miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I
began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon
my account; and this was the more strange to me, because I saw near it
still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks,
which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen
it grow in Africa when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my
support, but not doubting that there was more in the place, I went all
over that part of the island, where I had been before, peering in every
corner, and under every rock, to see for more of it, but I could not
find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that I shook a bag of
chickens’ meat out in that place; and then the wonder began to cease;
and I must confess my religious thankfulness to God’s providence began
to abate, too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what
was common; though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and
unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous; for it was really
the work of Providence to me, that should order or appoint that ten or
twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats had
destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven; as also,
that I should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being in
the shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had
thrown it anywhere else at that time, it had been burnt up and
destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn, I
resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity
sufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year
that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even
then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its order; for I lost
all that I sowed the first season by not observing the proper time; for
I sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all,
at least not as it would have done; of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of
rice, which I preserved with the same care and for the same use, or to
the same purpose—to make me bread, or rather food; for I found ways to
cook it without baking, though I did that also after some time.
But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done;
and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go into it, not by
a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no sign on
the outside of my habitation.
_April_ 16.—I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the top,
and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside. This was
a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough, and nothing
could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had all my
labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The case was thus: As I
was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at the entrance into my
cave, I was terribly frighted with a most dreadful, surprising thing
indeed; for all on a sudden I found the earth come crumbling down from
the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my head, and
two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful
manner. I was heartily scared; but thought nothing of what was really
the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was fallen in, as some
of it had done before: and for fear I should be buried in it I ran
forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got
over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might
roll down upon me. I had no sooner stepped down upon the firm ground,
than I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood
on shook three times at about eight minutes’ distance, with three such
shocks as would have overturned the strongest building that could be
supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a
rock which stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down with
such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceived also
the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believe the
shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the like,
nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one dead or
stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one
that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock
awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupefied condition I
was in, filled me with horror; and I thought of nothing then but the
hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods, and burying all
at once; and this sunk my very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I
began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over my
wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the
ground greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All
this while I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but
the common “Lord have mercy upon me!” and when it was over that went
away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as if it
would rain. Soon after that the wind arose by little and little, so
that in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane; the
sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth; the shore was
covered with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the
roots, and a terrible storm it was. This held about three hours, and
then began to abate; and in two hours more it was quite calm, and began
to rain very hard. All this while I sat upon the ground very much
terrified and dejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that
these winds and rain being the consequences of the earthquake, the
earthquake itself was spent and over, and I might venture into my cave
again. With this thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also
helping to persuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain
was so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I
was forced to go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for
fear it should fall on my head. This violent rain forced me to a new
work—viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to
let the water go out, which would else have flooded my cave. After I
had been in my cave for some time, and found still no more shocks of
the earthquake follow, I began to be more composed. And now, to support
my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little
store, and took a small sup of rum; which, however, I did then and
always very sparingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone.
It continued raining all that night and great part of the next day, so
that I could not stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began
to think of what I had best do; concluding that if the island was
subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a
cave, but I must consider of building a little hut in an open place
which I might surround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make
myself secure from wild beasts or men; for I concluded, if I stayed
where I was, I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place where
it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill; and
which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent;
and I spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in
contriving where and how to remove my habitation. The fear of being
swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in quiet; and yet the
apprehension of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it;
but still, when I looked about, and saw how everything was put in
order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe from danger, it
made me very loath to remove. In the meantime, it occurred to me that
it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must
be contented to venture where I was, till I had formed a camp for
myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it. So with this
resolution I composed myself for a time, and resolved that I would go
to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c.,
in a circle, as before, and set my tent up in it when it was finished;
but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, and
fit to remove. This was the 21st.
_April_ 22.—The next morning I begin to consider of means to put this