The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
and if the worst came to the worst, I could but die, which would put an
end to all these miseries at once. Pray note, all this was the fruit of
a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made desperate, as it were, by
the long continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments I had met
in the wreck I had been on board of, and where I had been so near
obtaining what I so earnestly longed for—somebody to speak to, and to
learn some knowledge from them of the place where I was, and of the
probable means of my deliverance. I was agitated wholly by these
thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation to Providence, and
waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be
suspended; and I had as it were no power to turn my thoughts to
anything but to the project of a voyage to the main, which came upon me
with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to
be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with such
violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as
if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervour of my
mind about it, Nature—as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the
very thoughts of it—threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thought
I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of anything relating to
it, but I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning as usual from
my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to
land, and that they brought with them another savage whom they were
going to kill in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage that
they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life; and I
thought in my sleep that he came running into my little thick grove
before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I seeing him alone,
and not perceiving that the others sought him that way, showed myself
to him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled down to
me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I showed him my
ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my
servant; and that as soon as I had got this man, I said to myself, “Now
I may certainly venture to the mainland, for this fellow will serve me
as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for
provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
places to venture into, and what to shun.” I waked with this thought;
and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of
my escape in my dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon
coming to myself, and finding that it was no more than a dream, were
equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very great
dejection of spirits.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go
about to attempt an escape was, to endeavour to get a savage into my
possession: and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners, whom
they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill. But
these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty: that it was
impossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them,
and killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt,
and might miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the
lawfulness of it to myself; and my heart trembled at the thoughts of
shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need not
repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before; but though I had other reasons to offer now—viz.
that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me if they
could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver
myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence as
much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say though
these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human blood
for my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no
means reconcile myself to for a great while. However, at last, after
many secret disputes with myself, and after great perplexities about it
(for all these arguments, one way and another, struggled in my head a
long time), the eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length
mastered all the rest; and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these
savages into my hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to
contrive how to do it, and this, indeed, was very difficult to resolve
on; but as I could pitch upon no probable means for it, so I resolved
to put myself upon the watch, to see them when they came on shore, and
leave the rest to the event; taking such measures as the opportunity
should present, let what would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout as
often as possible, and indeed so often that I was heartily tired of it;
for it was above a year and a half that I waited; and for great part of
that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the
island almost every day, to look for canoes, but none appeared. This
was very discouraging, and began to trouble me much, though I cannot
say that it did in this case (as it had done some time before) wear off
the edge of my desire to the thing; but the longer it seemed to be
delayed, the more eager I was for it: in a word, I was not at first so
careful to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by
them, as I was now eager to be upon them. Besides, I fancied myself
able to manage one, nay, two or three savages, if I had them, so as to
make them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them,
and to prevent their being able at any time to do me any hurt. It was a
great while that I pleased myself with this affair; but nothing still
presented itself; all my fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no
savages came near me for a great while.
About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and by long
musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an
occasion to put them into execution), I was surprised one morning by
seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the
island, and the people who belonged to them all landed and out of my
sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many,
and knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes more in a
boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures
to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still in my
castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into the same
position for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready
for action, if anything had presented. Having waited a good while,
listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very
impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to
the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however,
that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not
perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my
perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; that
they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed. How they had
cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I
know not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own way, round
the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective, two
miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they were
laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of
them immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or
wooden sword, for that was their way; and two or three others were at
work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other
victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him.
In that very moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at
liberty and unbound, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he
started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the
sands, directly towards me; I mean towards that part of the coast where
my habitation was. I was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge,
when I perceived him run my way; and especially when, as I thought, I
saw him pursued by the whole body: and now I expected that part of my
dream was coming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in
my grove; but I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream, that the
other savages would not pursue him thither and find him there. However,
I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when I found that
there was not above three men that followed him; and still more was I
encouraged, when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in
running, and gained ground on them; so that, if he could but hold out
for half-an-hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned often
in the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out of the
ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor
wretch would be taken there; but when the savage escaping came thither,
he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in,
swam through in about thirty strokes, or thereabouts, landed, and ran
with exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came to
the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the others, but
went no farther, and soon after went softly back again; which, as it
happened, was very well for him in the end. I observed that the two who
swam were yet more than twice as strong swimming over the creek as the
fellow was that fled from them. It came very warmly upon my thoughts,
and indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get me a servant,
and, perhaps, a companion or assistant; and that I was plainly called
by Providence to save this poor creature’s life. I immediately ran down
the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they
were both at the foot of the ladders, as I observed before, and getting
up again with the same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards
the sea; and having a very short cut, and all down hill, placed myself
in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallowing aloud to him
that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frightened
at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and,
in the meantime, I slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then
rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of
my piece. I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear;
though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard, and
being out of sight of the smoke, too, they would not have known what to
make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued him
stopped, as if he had been frightened, and I advanced towards him: but
as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was
fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then obliged to shoot at him first,
which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The poor savage who
fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his enemies fallen and
killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened with the fire and noise of
my piece that he stood stock still, and neither came forward nor went
backward, though he seemed rather inclined still to fly than to come
on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he
easily understood, and came a little way; then stopped again, and then
a little farther, and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he
stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to