The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I
came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I
began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing
else but my own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat,
as well as I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also
that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I
had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot,
I had played the part 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 not
stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to
starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but
some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be
milked too, which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor
creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and,
indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk.
Encouraging myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing
but the print of one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to
start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my
country house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I went
forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready every now and
then to lay down my basket and run for my life, it would have made any
one have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had
been lately most terribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I
went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began to
be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but my
own imagination; but I could not persuade myself fully of this till I
should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot, and
measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness,
that I might be assured it was my own foot: but when I came to the
place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat
I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts; secondly, when I
came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so large
by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new
imaginations, and gave me the vapours again to the highest degree, so
that I shook with cold like one in an ague; and I went home again,
filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there;
or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised
before I was aware; and what course to take for my security I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! It
deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their
relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down my
enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the
enemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the
same or the like booty: then the simple thing of digging up my two
corn-fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still be
prompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent,
that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to
look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night’s cogitations after I was
come home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind
were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours. Thus, fear of
danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when
apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by
much, than the evil which we are anxious about: and what was worse than
all this, I had not that relief in this trouble that from the
resignation I used to practise I hoped to have. I looked, I thought,
like Saul, who complained not only that the Philistines were upon him,
but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways to
compose my mind, by crying to God in 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 been more cheerfully supported
under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more
resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the
morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been as
it were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and
waked much better composed than I had ever been before. And now I began
to think sedately; and, upon debate with myself, I concluded that this
island (which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful, and no farther
from the mainland than as I had seen) was not so entirely abandoned as
I might imagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who
lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from
the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never but when they were
driven by cross winds, might come to this place; that I had lived there
fifteen years now and had not met with the least shadow or figure of
any people yet; and that, if at any time they should be driven here, it
was probable they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing
they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion; that the most
I could suggest any danger from was from any casual accidental landing
of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were
driven hither, were here against their wills, so they made no stay
here, but went off again with all possible speed; seldom staying one
night on shore, lest they should 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, in case 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
bring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond
where my fortification joined to the rock: upon maturely considering
this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the
manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had
planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I
made mention: these trees having been planted so thick before, they
wanted but few piles 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; and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of
timber, old cables, and everything I could think of, to make it strong;
having in it seven little holes, about as big as I might put my arm out
at. In the inside of this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick
with continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the
foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes I
contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I had got
seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted like my cannon, and
fitted them into frames, that held them like 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 never thought myself safe till
it was done.
When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great
length 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 I
believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty
large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they
attempted 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 and
strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what
kind soever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much
less a habitation. 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 of the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to
place another ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down
no man living could come down to me without doing himself mischief; and
if they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own
preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not
altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time
more than my mere fear suggested to me.
CHAPTER XII. A CAVE RETREAT
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other
affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats:
they were not only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to
be sufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also
without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over
again.
For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but two
ways to preserve them: one was, to find another convenient place to dig
a cave underground, and to drive them into it every night; and the
other was to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one
another, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep about
half-a-dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster
happened to the flock in general, I might be able to raise them again
with little trouble and time: and this though it would require a good
deal of time and labour, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of
the island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private, indeed, as my
heart could wish: it was a little damp piece of ground in the middle of
the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself
once before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part
of the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so
surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at
least, it did not want near so much labour to make it so as the other
piece of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground; and in less than
a month’s time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it
which you please, which were not so wild now as at first they might be
supposed to be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any further
delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece,
and when they were there I continued to perfect the fence till I had
made it as secure as the other; which, however, I did at more leisure,
and it took me up more time by a great deal. All this labour I was at
the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on account of the print of
a man’s foot; for as yet I had never seen any human creature come near
the island; and I had now lived two years under this uneasiness, which,
indeed, made my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may
be well imagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant
snare of the fear of man. And this I must observe, with grief, too,
that the discomposure of my mind had great impression also upon the
religious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into
the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I
seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my Maker; at
least, not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was
wont to do: I rather prayed to God as under great affliction and