The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about my tools. I had
three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the
hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and
cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and
though I had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too.
This cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a
grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man.
At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot,
that I might have both my hands at liberty. _Note_.—I had never seen
any such thing in England, or at least, not to take notice how it was
done, though since I have observed, it is very common there; besides
that, my grindstone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a
full week’s work to bring it to perfection.
_April_ 28, 29.—These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, my
machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
_April_ 30.—Having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now I
took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a day,
which made my heart very heavy.
_May_ 1.—In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tide being
low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and it
looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two
or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by
the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it
seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined
the barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of
gunpowder; but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as
a stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and
went on upon the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to
look for more.
CHAPTER VI. ILL AND CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN
When I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed. The
forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six
feet, and the stern, which was broke in pieces and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her, was
tossed as it were up, and cast on one side; and the sand was thrown so
high on that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great place
of water before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of
the wreck without swimming I could now walk quite up to her when the
tide was out. I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it
must be done by the earthquake; and as by this violence the ship was
more broke open than formerly, so many things came daily on shore,
which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolled by
degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my
habitation, and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in
searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I found
nothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the ship
was choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of
anything, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the
ship, concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some
use or other to me.
_May_ 3.—I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which
I thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and
when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could
from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged
to give over for that time.
_May_ 4.—I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of,
till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught a
young dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had
no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to
eat; all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.
_May_ 5.—Worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and brought
three great fir planks off from the decks, which I tied together, and
made to float on shore when the tide of flood came on.
_May_ 6.—Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her and
other pieces of ironwork. Worked very hard, and came home very much
tired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
_May_ 7.—Went to the wreck again, not with an intent to work, but found
the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams being cut;
that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the inside of
the hold lay so open that I could see into it; but it was almost full
of water and sand.
_May_ 8.—Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up the
deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand. I wrenched open
two planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. I left the
iron crow in the wreck for next day.
_May_ 9.—Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body of
the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, but
could not break them up. I felt also a roll of English lead, and could
stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
_May_ 10–14.—Went every day to the wreck; and got a great many pieces
of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundredweight of
iron.
_May_ 15.—I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece off
the roll of lead by placing the edge of one hatchet and driving it with
the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I could
not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
_May_ 16.—It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared more
broken by the force of the water; but I stayed so long in the woods, to
get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreck
that day.
_May_ 17.—I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great
distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were,
and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring
away.
_May_ 24.—Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and with hard
labour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the first
flowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen’s chests;
but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day but
pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brazil pork in it; but
the salt water and the sand had spoiled it. I continued this work every
day to the 15th of June, except the time necessary to get food, which I
always appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the
tide was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this
time I had got timber and plank and ironwork enough to have built a
good boat, if I had known how; and also I got, at several times and in
several pieces, near one hundredweight of the sheet lead.
_June_ 16.—Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise or
turtle. This was the first I had seen, which, it seems, was only my
misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I
happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have had
hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid
dear enough for them.
_June_ 17.—I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her three-score
eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and
pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of
goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
_June_ 18.—Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at this time
the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly; which I knew was not
usual in that latitude.
_June_ 19.—Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.
_June_ 20.—No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.
_June_ 21.—Very ill; frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of
my sad condition—to be sick, and no help. Prayed to God, for the first
time since the storm off Hull, but scarce knew what I said, or why, my
thoughts being all confused.
_June_ 22.—A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of
sickness.
_June_ 23.—Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent
headache.
_June_ 24.—Much better.
_June_ 25.—An ague very violent; the fit held me seven hours; cold fit
and hot, with faint sweats after it.
_June_ 26.—Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but
found myself very weak. However, I killed a she-goat, and with much
difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate, I would fain
have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot.
_June_ 27.—The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day, and
neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak, I
had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink.
Prayed to God again, but was light-headed; and when I was not, I was so
ignorant that I knew not what to say; only I lay and cried, “Lord, look
upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!” I suppose I did
nothing else for two or three hours; till, the fit wearing off, I fell
asleep, and did not wake till far in the night. When I awoke, I found
myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty. However, as I
had no water in my habitation, I was forced to lie till morning, and
went to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible dream: I
thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of my wall,
where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that I saw a
man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and
light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as a flame, so that I
could but just bear to look towards him; his countenance was most
inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe. When he
stepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled,
just as it had done before in the earthquake, and all the air looked,
to my apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. He
was no sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward towards me,
with a long spear or weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came
to a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me—or I heard a voice
so terrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it. All that
I can say I understood was this: “Seeing all these things have not
brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;” at which words, I
thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me.
No one that shall ever read this account will expect that I should be
able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision. I
mean, that even while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those horrors.
Nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained
upon my mind when I awaked, and found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge. What I had received by the good
instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series,
for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversation
with none but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last
degree. I do not remember that I had, in all that time, one thought
that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God, or
inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways; but a certain stupidity
of soul, without desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely
overwhelmed me; and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking,
wicked creature among our common sailors can be supposed to be; not
having the least sense, either of the fear of God in danger, or of
thankfulness to God in deliverance.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the more
easily believed when I shall add, that through all the variety of
miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had so much as one
thought of it being the hand of God, or that it was a just punishment