The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at
him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shore
again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries
and howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as
higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing
I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before:
this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night
on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another
question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages
had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and
tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other
for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to
get to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with
one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some
to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in
the boat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me love him
ever after. Says he, “If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey.”
“Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go and if the wild mans come, we
will kill them, they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piece
of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottles
which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore
as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but
our arms and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place
about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him
come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or
frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his
shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but
different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it,
and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with,
was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for
a little higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh
when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filled
our jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on
our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of
the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that
the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay
not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing,
or at least remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where
to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I
might now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was,
that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the
English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual
design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that
country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the
negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes
having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, and
the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness;
and indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious number of
tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour
there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go
like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near
a hundred miles together upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste,
uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring
of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,
being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a
great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also
going too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left
this place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came to
an anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and the
tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes
were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and
tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; “For,” says he,
“look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast
asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed,
for it was a terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore,
under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little
over him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore and kill him.” Xury,
looked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!”—one
mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie
still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and
loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it
down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for we
had three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best
aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he
lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit
his leg about the knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling at
first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon
three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a
little surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up
the second piece immediately, and though he began to move off, fired
again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop
and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took
heart, and would have me let him go on shore. “Well, go,” said I: so
the boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam
to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the
muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry
to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good
for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he
comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. “For what, Xury?”
said I. “Me cut off his head,” said he. However, Xury could not cut off
his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a
monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one
way or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his
skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much
the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it
took us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him,
and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it
in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
CHAPTER III. WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began to
abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were obliged
to for fresh water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia or
Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the Cape de Verde, where I was
in hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew not
what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there
among the negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed
either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made
this cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my
fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship
or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have
said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three
places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at
us; we could also perceive they were quite black and naked. I was once
inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better
counsellor, and said to me, “No go, no go.” However, I hauled in nearer
the shore that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along the
shore by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons in their hand,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance,
and that they could throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at
a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could; and
particularly made signs for something to eat: they beckoned to me to
stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered
the top of my sail and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country,
and in less than half-an-hour came back, and brought with them two
pieces of dried flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their
country; but we neither knew what the one or the other was; however, we
were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute,
for I would not venture on shore to them, and they were as much afraid
of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the
shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we
fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them
amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them
wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty
creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from
the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the
female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell,
any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but I
believe it was the latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous
creatures seldom appear but in the night; and, in the second place, we
found the people terribly frighted, especially the women. The man that
had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; however,
as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not offer to
fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and
swam about, as if they had come for their diversion; at last one of
them began to come nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay
ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition,
and bade Xury load both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my
reach, I fired, and shot him directly in the head; immediately he sank
down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if
he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was; he immediately made
to the shore; but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the
strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at
the noise and fire of my gun: some of them were even ready to die for
fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw the
creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to