Part 1 (1/2)

Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe

CHAPTER I

- START IN LIFE

I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good faner of Breood estate byoff his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married ood family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my companions always called me

I had two elder brothers, one of as lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards What became of my second brother I never knew, any more thanthe third son of the faan to be filled very early with raiven , as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed oing to sea; and ainst the will, nay, the coainst all the entreaties and persuasions offatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall ave ainst what he foresaasinto his chaout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject He askedinclination, I had for leaving father's house and ht be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure He told me it was , superior fortunes on the other, ent abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and s of a nature out of the cos were all either too far above me or too far below ht be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the s of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of e of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently las, and wished they had been placed in the reat; that the wise ave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the cala the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so her or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or , luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, anddistemper upon the; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that tereeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way h the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of as; but, in easy circuh the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly, After this he pressed me earnestly, and in theman, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in, seeainst; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been reco to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault thatto answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning ainst measures which he kneould be to s for me if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so eo away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whooing into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires pro hih he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not blessneglected his counsel when there ht be none to assist in my recovery

I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself - I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke ofleisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he could say no more to me

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad anyto my father's desire But alas! a few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's further importunities, in a feeeks after I resolved to run quite away from him However, I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my resolution proht her a little hts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and o without it; that I was now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my time, but I should certainly run away froo to sea; and if she would speak to ain, and did not like it, I would go no ence, to recover the tireat passion; she told me she kneould be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew too asso much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin ht depend I should never have their consent to it; that for her part she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to say that h my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to hireat concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, ”That boy oes abroad, he will be the ive no consent to it”

It was not till alh, in the meanti to business, and frequently expostulated withso positively deterainst what they knewone day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose ofthere, and one ofabout to sail to London in his father's shi+p, and proo with the e, I consulted neither father nor mother anythe or my father's, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a shi+p bound for London Never any young adventurer's er than mine The shi+p was no sooner out of the Huan to blow and the sea to rise in a htful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was an now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judg ood counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father

All this while the stor like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was enough to affectsailor, and had never known anything of the matter I expected every ould have sed us up, and that every tih or hollow of the sea, we should never rise ony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that if it would please God to spare ot once o directly hoain while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself into such oodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go hohts continued all the while the storm lasted, and indeed some time after; but the next day the as abated, and the sea calan to be a little inured to it; however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the as quite over, and a char followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the nextlittle or no wind, and a sht was, as I thought, the htful that ever I saw

I had slept well in the night, and was now noonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a tiood resolutions should continue, my companion, who had enticedme upon the shoulder, ”how do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted, wer'n't you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?” ”A capful d'you call it?” said I; ”'twas a terrible storm” ”A storm, you fool you,” replies he; ”do you call that a storood shi+p and sea-roo of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor, Bob Coet all that; d'ye see what char weather 'tis now?” To make short this sad part of my story, ent the way of all sailors; the punch was ht's wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the future In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calhts being over,sed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current of ot the vows and promises that I made in my distress I found, indeed, sohts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and rousedand company, soon mastered the return of those fits - for so I called theot as co fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire But I was to have another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse; for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and er and theat sea we ca been contrary and the weather calm, we had ed to co contrary - viz at south-west - for seven or eight days, during which tireat many shi+ps from Newcastle came into the saht wait for a wind for the river

We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard However, the Roads being reckoned as good as a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground- tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent the tihth day, in the , the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our top and close, that the shi+p h indeed, and our shi+p rode forecastle in, shi+pped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the bitter end

By this tian to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seailant in the business of preserving the shi+p, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say, several times, ”Lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost! we shall be all undone!” and the like During these first hurries I was stupid, lying still in e, and cannot describe my temper: I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so apparently traht the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing like the first; but when the master himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted I got up out of ht I never saw: the sea ran h, and broke upon us every three or fourbut distress round us; two shi+ps that rode near us, we found, had cut theirdeep laden; and our men cried out that a shi+p which rode about adriven from their anchors, were run out of the Roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a ht shi+ps fared the best, as not soin the sea; but two or three of the aith only their spritsail out before the wind

Towards evening the ed the master of our shi+p to let the to do; but the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not the shi+p would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the shi+p so ed to cut that away also, and e what a condition Isailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror ofreturned from them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition that I can by no words describe it But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury that the seaed they had never seen a worse We had a good shi+p, but she was deep laden, and ed in the sea, so that the seamen every now and then cried out she would founder It was e in one respect, that I did not knohat they meant by FOUNDER till I inquired However, the storm was so violent that I sahat is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some othersevery o to the bottoht, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of thea leak; another said there was four feet water in the hold Then all hands were called to the puht, died within me: and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin However, thebefore, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up and went to the pu the ht colliers, who, not able to ride out the stored to slip and run away to sea, and would conal of distress I, who knew nothing what theyhappened In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon As this was a time when everybody had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or as become ofI had been dead; and it was a great while before I ca in the hold, it was apparent that the shi+p would founder; and though the storan to abate a little, yet it was not possible she could swiht run into any port; so the ht shi+p, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us It ith the utmost hazard the boat caet on board, or for the boat to lie near the shi+p's side, till at last thetheir lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they, after much labour and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled theot all into their boat It was to no purpose for the their own shi+p; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore, he wouldand partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our shi+p tillher sink, and then I understood for the first ti in the sea I e I had hardly eyes to look up when the sea; for from the ht be said to go in, ht, partly with horror of hts of as yet before me

While ere in this condition - thethe boat near the shore - we could see (when, our boat reatthe strand to assist us e should come near; but we made but sloay towards the shore; nor e able to reach the shore till, being past the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to the ard towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind Here we got in, and though not without ot all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarreat huned us good quarters, as by particular iven us sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hull as we thought fit

Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, as in our blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf forthe shi+p I went away in was cast away in Yarreat while before he had any assurances that I was not drowned

Butcould resist; and though I had several tio home, yet I had no power to do it I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruh it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery, which it was iainst the calhts, and against two such visible instructions as I had met with in my first attempt

My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and as the master's son, was now less forward than I The first time he spoke to me after ere at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for ere separated in the town to several quarters; I say, the first ti veryhis head, he askedhis father who I was, and how I had coo further abroad, his father, turning toht to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring o to sea no , and therefore e on trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist Perhaps this has all befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the shi+p of Tarshi+sh Pray,” continues he, ”what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?” Upon that I told him soe kind of passion: ”What had I done,” says he, ”that such an unhappy wretch should come into my shi+p? I would not set ain for a thousand pounds” This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go However, he afterwards talked very gravely to o back toainsto back, wherever you go, you willbut disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon you”

We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw hi some money in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the road, had les with myself what course of life I should take, and whether I should go ho hohts, and it i the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else; froruous and irrational the common temper of ht to guide them in such cases - viz that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashaht justly to be estee, which only can make them be esteemed wise men

In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to lead An irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed away a while, the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage

CHAPTER II

- SLAVERY AND ESCAPE

THAT evil influence which carried me first away froested notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon ood advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea

It was reat misfortune that in all these adventures I did not shi+p ht indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-ht have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master But as it was alwaysood clothes upon entleman; and so I neither had any business in the shi+p, nor learned to do any

It was ood company in London, which does not always happen to such loose and enerally not o to lay some snare for theot acquainted with the master of a shi+p who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was resolved to go again This captain taking a fancy to reeable at that ti o the voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be hiswith e of it that the trade would ade into a strict friendshi+p with this captain, as an honest, plain-dealing e with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directed ether by the assistance of some of ot my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to e which I may say was successful in all rity and honesty of ot a coation, learned how to keep an account of the shi+p's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand sos that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delight to instruct e ht hoold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return, alhts which have since so coe I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the cli upon the coast, frorees north even to the line itself

I was now set up for a Guinea trader; andsoon after his arrival, I resolved to go the saain, and I embarked in the sae, and had now got the coe that ever h I did not carry quite 100 pounds of ained wealth, so that I had 200 pounds left, which I had lodged with my friend's ho was very just to me, yet I fell into terribleher course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the ave chase to us with all the sail she could make We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our ained upon us, and would certainly coht; our shi+p having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen About three in the afternoon he ca to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon hi our fire, and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred men which he had on board However, we had not aclose He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves But laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixtyand hacking the sails and rigging We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice However, to cut short thisdisabled, and three of our ed to yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, andand nie of my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be ht was now so effectually brought to pass that I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas! this was but a taste of the h, as will appear in the sequel of this story

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was in hopes that he would takethat it would some tial man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left arden, and do the coery of slaves about his house; and when he caain from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the shi+p