The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps,
been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning,
when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, “Master,
master, they are come, they are come!” I jumped up, and regardless of
danger I went, as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little
grove, which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick
wood; I say, regardless of danger I went without my arms, which was not
my custom to do; but I was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea,
I presently saw a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing
in for the shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and
the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed,
presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore lay
on, but from the southernmost end of the island. Upon this I called
Friday in, and bade him lie close, for these were not the people we
looked for, and that we might not know yet whether they were friends or
enemies. In the next place I went in to fetch my perspective glass to
see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I
climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was
apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer without being
discovered. I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly
discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a half
distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and a half from the
shore. By my observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of seeing a
ship, and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own
countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe;
but yet I had some secret doubts hung about me—I cannot tell from
whence they came—bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it
occurred to me to consider what business an English ship could have in
that part of the world, since it was not the way to or from any part of
the world where the English had any traffic; and I knew there had been
no storms to drive them in there in distress; and that if they were
really English it was most probable that they were here upon no good
design; and that I had better continue as I was than fall into the
hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger which
sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of
its being real. That such hints and notices are given us I believe few
that have made any observation of things can deny; that they are
certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits,
we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of
danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent
(whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question),
and that they are given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this
reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret admonition,
come it from whence it will, I had been done inevitably, and in a far
worse condition than before, as you will see presently. I had not kept
myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the shore, as
if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of
landing; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did not
see the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but ran their
boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was
very happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my
door, as I may say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and
perhaps have plundered me of all I had. When they were on shore I was
fully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two
I thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all eleven
men, whereof three of them I found were unarmed and, as I thought,
bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore,
they took those three out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three I
could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty,
affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two,
I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared
concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. I was
perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it
should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, “O
master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.”
“Why, Friday,” says I, “do you think they are going to eat them, then?”
“Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat them.” “No no,” says I, “Friday; I
am afraid they will murder them, indeed; but you may be sure they will
not eat them.”
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but
stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment
when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the
villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it,
or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall
every moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in
my veins. I wished heartily now for the Spaniard, and the savage that
had gone with him, or that I had any way to have come undiscovered
within shot of them, that I might have secured the three men, for I saw
no firearms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another
way. After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the
insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the
island, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three
other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down
all three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in
despair. This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore,
and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly
I looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged
in the tree all night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. As I
knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive by the
providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and
tide, by which I have since been so long nourished and supported; so
these three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance
and supply they were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and
really they were in a condition of safety, at the same time that they
thought themselves lost and their case desperate. So little do we see
before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully
upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not leave His creatures
so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have
always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer
deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their
deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their
destruction.
It was just at high-water when these people came on shore; and while
they rambled about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had
carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed
considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They had left two men in
the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk a little too much
brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a little sooner than
the other and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it,
hallooed out for the rest, who were straggling about: upon which they
all soon came to the boat: but it was past all their strength to launch
her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft
oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. In this condition, like true
seamen, who are, perhaps, the least of all mankind given to
forethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled about the
country again; and I heard one of them say aloud to another, calling
them off from the boat, “Why, let her alone, Jack, can’t you? she’ll
float next tide;” by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of
what countrymen they were. All this while I kept myself very close, not
once daring to stir out of my castle any farther than to my place of
observation near the top of the hill: and very glad I was to think how
well it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before the
boat could float again, and by that time it would be dark, and I might
be at more liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse,
if they had any. In the meantime I fitted myself up for a battle as
before, though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another kind
of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made an
excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I took
myself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure,
indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with
the great cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols
in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till it
was dark; but about two o’clock, being the heat of the day, I found
that they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as I thought,
laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxious for
their condition to get any sleep, had, however, sat down under the
shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as
I thought, out of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved to
discover myself to them, and learn something of their condition;
immediately I marched as above, my man Friday at a good distance behind
me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not making quite so staring a
spectre-like figure as I did. I came as near them undiscovered as I
could, and then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in
Spanish, “What are ye, gentlemen?” They started up at the noise, but
were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure
that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived them
just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in English.
“Gentlemen,” said I, “do not be surprised at me; perhaps you may have a
friend near when you did not expect it.” “He must be sent directly from
heaven then,” said one of them very gravely to me, and pulling off his
hat at the same time to me; “for our condition is past the help of
man.” “All help is from heaven, sir,” said I, “but can you put a
stranger in the way to help you? for you seem to be in some great
distress. I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to make
application to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them lift up
his sword to kill you.”
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking
like one astonished, returned, “Am I talking to God or man? Is it a
real man or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I; “if God
had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed,
and armed after another manner than you see me; pray lay aside your
fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you; you see I
have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can
we serve you? What is your case?” “Our case, sir,” said he, “is too
long to tell you while our murderers are so near us; but, in short,
sir, I was commander of that ship—my men have mutinied against me; they
have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set
me on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me—one my
mate, the other a passenger—where we expected to perish, believing the