The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge,
and the rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in
the night, the wind blowing hard at ENE. Had they seen the island, as I
must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have
endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their
boat; but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as
I imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined
that upon seeing my light they might have put themselves into their
boat, and endeavoured to make the shore: but that the sea running very
high, they might have been cast away. Other times I imagined that they
might have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways;
particularly by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many
times obliged men to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and
sometimes to throw it overboard with their own hands. Other times I
imagined they had some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the
signals of distress they made, had taken them up, and carried them off.
Other times I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and
being hurried away by the current that I had been formerly in, were
carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery
and perishing: and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of
starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another.
As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was
in, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men,
and pity them; which had still this good effect upon my side, that it
gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily
and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of
two ships’ companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the
world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to
observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into
any condition so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something
or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances
than our own. Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could
not so much as see room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make
it rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish
there, except the possibility only of their being taken up by another
ship in company; and this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw
not the least sign or appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain,
by any possible energy of words, what a strange longing I felt in my
soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus: “Oh that there had
been but one or two, nay, or but one soul saved out of this ship, to
have escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion, one
fellow-creature, to have spoken to me and to have conversed with!” In
all the time of my solitary life I never felt so earnest, so strong a
desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at
the want of it.
There are some secret springs in the affections which, when they are
set a-going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yet
rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion
carries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eager
embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Such
were these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe
I repeated the words, “Oh that it had been but one!” a thousand times;
and my desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my
hands would clinch together, and my fingers would press the palms of my
hands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand I should have
crushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would strike
together, and set against one another so strong, that for some time I
could not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these things,
and the reason and manner of them. All I can do is to describe the
fact, which was even surprising to me when I found it, though I knew
not from whence it proceeded; it was doubtless the effect of ardent
wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realising the comfort
which the conversation of one of my fellow-Christians would have been
to me. But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both,
forbade it; for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never
knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only the
affliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on
shore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had no
clothes on but a seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen
drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to
guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pockets but two
pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe—the last was to me of ten times more
value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to
this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that might
be useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the
possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board,
whose life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life,
comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my
heart that I could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in
my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God’s
providence, I thought the impression was so strong upon my mind that it
could not be resisted—that it must come from some invisible direction,
and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,
prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great
pot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I had
still a great deal of that left), and a basket of raisins; and thus,
loading myself with everything necessary. I went down to my boat, got
the water out of her, got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and
then went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag of rice,
the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot of
water, and about two dozen of small loaves, or barley cakes, more than
before, with a bottle of goat’s milk and a cheese; all which with great
labour and sweat I carried to my boat; and praying to God to direct my
voyage, I put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore,
came at last to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side.
And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or
not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on
both sides of the island at a distance, and which were very terrible to
me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my
heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either
of those currents, I should be carried a great way out to sea, and
perhaps out of my reach or sight of the island again; and that then, as
my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I should
be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my
enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore,
I stepped out, and sat down upon a rising bit of ground, very pensive
and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was
musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come
on; upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this,
presently it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest piece of
ground I could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide
or currents lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if
I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way
home, with the same rapidity of the currents. This thought was no
sooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill which
sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a
clear view of the currents or sets of the tide, and which way I was to
guide myself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of ebb set
out close by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood
set in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing to
do but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and I
should do well enough.
Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out
with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in my
canoe, under the watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a
little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the
current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate; and
yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had done
before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a
strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the
wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was a dismal
sight to look at; the ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck
fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her
were beaten to pieces by the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in
the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast
were brought by the board—that is to say, broken short off; but her
bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. When I came
close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped
and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to
me. I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead with hunger and
thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured it like a
ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow; I then
gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would have
let him, he would have burst himself. After this I went on board; but
the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or
forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I
concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being
in a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually over her, that the
men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant
rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water.
Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor
any goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There
were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay
lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see;
but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I
believe belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into the
boat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship
been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am persuaded I might have
made a good voyage; for by what I found in those two chests I had room
to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may
guess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos
Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the
Brazils to the Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to
Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at
that time, to anybody; and what became of the crew I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There
were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about
four pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion for
them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel