particularly I tried many ways to make myself a basket, but
all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle
that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advan-
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tage to me now, that when I was a boy, I used to take great
delight in standing at a basket-maker’s, in the town where
my father lived, to see them make their wicker-ware; and
being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and a great
observer of the manner in which they worked those things,
and sometimes lending a hand, I had by these means full
knowledge of the methods of it, and I wanted nothing but
the materials, when it came into my mind that the twigs
of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew might
possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows, and osiers in
England, and I resolved to try. Accordingly, the next day I
went to my country house, as I called it, and cutting some
of the smaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much
as I could desire; whereupon I came the next time prepared
with a hatchet to cut down a quantity, which I soon found,
for there was great plenty of them. These I set up to dry
within my circle or hedge, and when they were fit for use I
carried them to my cave; and here, during the next season, I
employed myself in making, as well as I could, a great many
baskets, both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything,
as I had occasion; and though I did not finish them very
handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my
purpose; thus, afterwards, I took care never to be without
them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, I made more, espe-
cially strong, deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of
sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world
of time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how
to supply two wants. I had no vessels to hold anything that
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was liquid, except two runlets, which were almost full of
rum, and some glass bottles - some of the common size, and
others which were case bottles, square, for the holding of
water, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil any-
thing, except a great kettle, which I saved out of the ship,
and which was too big for such as I desired it - viz. to make
broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. The second thing I
fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impos-
sible to me to make one; however, I found a contrivance for
that, too, at last. I employed myself in planting my second
rows of stakes or piles, and in this wicker-working all the
summer or dry season, when another business took me up
more time than it could be imagined I could spare.
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CHAPTER VIII - SURVEYS
HIS POSITION
I MENTIONED before that I had a great mind to see the
whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so
on to where I built my bower, and where I had an opening
quite to the sea, on the other side of the island. I now re-
solved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that side; so,
taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity
of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and
a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store, I began
my journey. When I had passed the vale where my bower
stood, as above, I came within view of the sea to the west,
and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land - whether
an island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very high,
extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great dis-
tance; by my guess it could not be less than fifteen or twenty
leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, oth-
erwise than that I knew it must be part of America, and, as
I concluded by all my observations, must be near the Span-
ish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages,
where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse condition than
I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions
of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe
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ordered everything for the best; I say I quieted my mind
with this, and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes
of being there.
Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered
that if this land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly,
one time or other, see some vessel pass or repass one way or
other; but if not, then it was the savage coast between the
Spanish country and Brazils, where are found the worst of
savages; for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and fail not
to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into
their hands.
With these considerations, I walked very leisurely for-
ward. I found that side of the island where I now was much
pleasanter than mine - the open or savannah fields sweet,
adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods.
I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caught
one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to
speak to me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young
parrot, for I knocked it down with a stick, and having re-
covered it, I brought it home; but it was some years before I
could make him speak; however, at last I taught him to call
me by name very familiarly. But the accident that followed,
though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in
the low grounds hares (as I thought them to be) and fox-
es; but they differed greatly from all the other kinds I had
met with, nor could I satisfy myself to eat them, though I
killed several. But I had no need to be venturous, for I had
no want of food, and of that which was very good too, es-
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pecially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle,
or tortoise, which added to my grapes, Leadenhall market
could not have furnished a table better than I, in propor-
tion to the company; and though my case was deplorable
enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was
not driven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty,
even to dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles out-
right in a day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns and
re-turns to see what discoveries I could make, that I came
weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit down all
night; and then I either reposed myself in a tree, or sur-
rounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild
creature could come at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see
that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island,
for here, indeed, the shore was covered with innumerable
turtles, whereas on the other side I had found but three in a
year and a half. Here was also an infinite number of fowls of
many kinds, some which I had seen, and some which I had
not seen before, and many of them very good meat, but such
as I knew not the names of, except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very spar-
ing of my powder and shot, and therefore had more mind to
kill a she-goat if I could, which I could better feed on; and
though there were many goats here, more than on my side
the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that I could
come near them, the country being flat and even, and they
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saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter
than mine; but yet I had not the least inclination to remove,
for as I was fixed in my habitation it became natural to me,
and I seemed all the while I was here to be as it were upon
a journey, and from home. However, I travelled along the
shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose about twelve
miles, and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for
a mark, I concluded I would go home again, and that the
next journey I took should be on the other side of the island
east from my dwelling, and so round till I came to my post
again.
I took another way to come back than that I went, think-
ing I could easily keep all the island so much in my view
that I could not miss finding my first dwelling by viewing
the country; but I found myself mistaken, for being come
about two or three miles, I found myself descended into a
very large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those
hills covered with wood, that I could not see which was my
way by any direction but that of the sun, nor even then, un-
less I knew very well the position of the sun at that time
of the day. It happened, to my further misfortune, that the
weather proved hazy for three or four days while I was in
the valley, and not being able to see the sun, I wandered
about very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find
the seaside, look for my post, and come back the same way
I went: and then, by easy journeys, I turned homeward, the
weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition,
hatchet, and other things very heavy.
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In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized
upon it; and I, running in to take hold of it, caught it, and
saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind to bring it
home if I could, for I had often been musing whether it
might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a
breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my pow-
der and shot should be all spent. I made a collar for this little
creature, and with a string, which I made of some rope-yam,
which I always carried about me, I led him along, though
with some difficulty, till I came to my bower, and there I
enclosed him and left him, for I was very impatient to be at
home, from whence I had been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come
into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This
little wandering journey, without settled place of abode, had
been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it
to myself, was a perfect settlement to me compared to that;
and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I
resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it
should be my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself
after my long journey; during which most of the time was
taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll,
who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be well ac-
quainted with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid
which I had penned in within my little circle, and resolved
to go and fetch it home, or give it some food; accordingly I
went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it could not get
out, but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut
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boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as I could find,
and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did before,
to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that
I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog:
and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so
gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time one of my
domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now
come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn
manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on
the island, having now been there two years, and no more
prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there,
I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledg-
ments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary
condition was attended with, and without which it might
have been infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and
hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me
that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary
condition than I should have been in the liberty of society,
and in all the pleasures of the world; that He could fully
make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the
want of human society, by His presence and the commu-
nications of His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting,
and encouraging me to depend upon His providence here,
and hope for His eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more
happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable circum-
stances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all
the past part of my days; and now I changed both my sor-
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rows and my joys; my very desires altered, my affections
changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new
from what they were at my first coming, or, indeed, for the
two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for
viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition
would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart
would die within me, to think of the woods, the mountains,
the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner, locked up
with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an unin-
habited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the
greatest composure of my mind, this would break out upon
me like a storm, and make me wring my hands and weep
like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middle of
my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and
look upon the ground for an hour or two together; and this
was still worse to me, for if I could burst out into tears, or
vent myself by words, it would go off, and the grief, having
exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts:
I daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts
of it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, I
opened the Bible upon these words, ‘I will never, never leave
thee, nor forsake thee.’ Immediately it occurred that these
words were to me; why else should they be directed in such
a manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over
my condition, as one forsaken of God and man? ‘Well, then,’
said I, ‘if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence
can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all
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forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world,
and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would
be no comparison in the loss?’
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that
it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken,
solitary condition than it was probable I should ever have
been in any other particular state in the world; and with
this thought I was going to give thanks to God for bring-
ing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something
shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak
the words. ‘How canst thou become such a hypocrite,’ said
I, even audibly, ‘to pretend to be thankful for a condition
which, however thou mayest endeavour to be contented with,
thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?’ So
I stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God
for being there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for open-
ing my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the
former condition of my life, and to mourn for my wicked-
ness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my
very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend in
England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among
my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of
the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third
year; and though I have not given the reader the trouble of
so particular an account of my works this year as the first,
yet in general it may be observed that I was very seldom idle,
but having regularly divided my time according to the sev-
eral daily employments that were before me, such as: first,
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my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I
constantly set apart some time for thrice every day; second-
ly, the going abroad with my gun for food, which generally
took me up three hours in every morning, when it did not
rain; thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving, and cook-
ing what I had killed or caught for my supply; these took up
great part of the day. Also, it is to be considered, that in the
middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the vio-
lence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that about four
hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed
to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I changed
my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the
morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be add-
ed the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours
which, for want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, ev-
erything I did took up out of my time. For example, I was
full two and forty days in making a board for a long shelf,
which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their
tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the
same tree in half a day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to
be cut down, because my board was to be a broad one. This
tree I was three days in cutting down, and two more cutting
off the boughs, and reducing it to a log or piece of timber.
With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced both the
sides of it into chips till it began to be light enough to move;
then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat
as a board from end to end; then, turning that side down-
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ward, cut the other side til I brought the plank to be about
three inches thick, and smooth on both sides. Any one may
judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work; but
labour and patience carried me through that, and many
other things. I only observe this in particular, to show the
reason why so much of my time went away with so little
work - viz. that what might be a little to be done with help
and tools, was a vast labour and required a prodigious time
to do alone, and by hand. But notwithstanding this, with
patience and labour I got through everything that my cir-
cumstances made necessary to me to do, as will appear by
what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and December,
expecting my crop of barley and rice. The ground I had ma-
nured and dug up for them was not great; for, as I observed,
my seed of each was not above the quantity of half a peck,
for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season.
But now my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I
found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of
several sorts, which it was scarcely possible to keep from it;
as, first, the goats, and wild creatures which I called hares,
who, tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and
day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so close, that it could
get no time to shoot up into stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure
about it with a hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil,
and the more, because it required speed. However, as my
arable land was but small, suited to my crop, I got it totally
well fenced in about three weeks’ time; and shooting some
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of the creatures in the daytime, I set my dog to guard it
in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he
would stand and bark all night long; so in a little time the
enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong
and well, and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in
the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when
it was in the ear; for, going along by the place to see how
it throve, I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls, of I
know not how many sorts, who stood, as it were, watching
till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them, for I
always had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot, but there
rose up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all,
from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days
they would devour all my hopes; that I should be starved,
and never be able to raise a crop at all; and what to do I
could not tell; however, I resolved not to lose my corn, if
possible, though I should watch it night and day. In the first
place, I went among it to see what damage was already done,
and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that as it
was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great but
that the remainder was likely to be a good crop if it could
be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I
could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about
me, as if they only waited till I was gone away, and the event
proved it to be so; for as I walked off, as if I was gone, I
was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped down
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one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I
could not have patience to stay till more came on, know-
ing that every grain that they ate now was, as it might be
said, a peck-loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up
to the hedge, I fired again, and killed three of them. This
was what I wished for; so I took them up, and served them
as we serve notorious thieves in England - hanged them in
chains, for a terror to of them. It is impossible to imagine
that this should have such an effect as it had, for the fowls
would not only not come at the corn, but, in short, they for-
sook all that part of the island, and I could never see a bird
near the place as long as my scarecrows hung there. This I
was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter end
of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I
reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down,
and all I could do was to make one, as well as I could, out of
one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among
the arms out of the ship. However, as my first crop was but
small, I had no great difficulty to cut it down; in short, I
reaped it in my way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and
carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and so
rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my har-
vesting, I found that out of my half-peck of seed I had near
two bushels of rice, and about two bushels and a half of bar-
ley; that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that
time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and
I foresaw that, in time, it would please God to supply me
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with bread. And yet here I was perplexed again, for I nei-
ther knew how to grind or make meal of my corn, or indeed
how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to
make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how
to bake it. These things being added to my desire of having
a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I
resolved not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for
seed against the next season; and in the meantime to em-
ploy all my study and hours of working to accomplish this
great work of providing myself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread.
I believe few people have thought much upon the strange
multitude of little things necessary in the providing, pro-
ducing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one
article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this
to my daily discouragement; and was made more sensible of
it every hour, even after I had got the first handful of seed-
corn, which, as I have said, came up unexpectedly, and
indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth - no spade or
shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making me a wood-
en spade, as I observed before; but this did my work but in a
wooden manner; and though it cost me a great many days to
make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out soon, but
made my work the harder, and made it be performed much
worse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it
out with patience, and bear with the badness of the perfor-
mance. When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was
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forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of
a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than
rake or harrow it. When it was growing, and grown, I have
observed already how many things I wanted to fence it, se-
cure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part
it from the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it
sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an
oven to bake it; but all these things I did without, as shall be
observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and
advantage to me too. All this, as I said, made everything
laborious and tedious to me; but that there was no help for.
Neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had
divided it, a certain part of it was every day appointed to
these works; and as I had resolved to use none of the corn
for bread till I had a greater quantity by me, I had the next
six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and invention,
to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing
all the operations necessary for making the corn, when I
had it, fit for my use.
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CHAPTER IX - A BOAT
BUT first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed
enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I
had a week’s work at least to make me a spade, which, when
it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and very heavy,
and required double labour to work with it. However, I got
through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of
ground, as near my house as I could find them to my mind,
and fenced them in with a good hedge, the stakes of which
were all cut off that wood which I had set before, and knew
it would grow; so that, in a year’s time, I knew I should have
a quick or living hedge, that would want but little repair.
This work did not take me up less than three months, be-
cause a great part of that time was the wet season, when I
could not go abroad. Within-doors, that is when it rained
and I could not go out, I found employment in the follow-
ing occupations - always observing, that all the while I was
at work I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and
teaching him to speak; and I quickly taught him to know
his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, ‘Poll,’
which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by
any mouth but my own. This, therefore, was not my work,
but an assistance to my work; for now, as I said, I had a
great employment upon my hands, as follows: I had long
studied to make, by some means or other, some earthen
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vessels, which, indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew not where
to come at them. However, considering the heat of the cli-
mate, I did not doubt but if I could find out any clay, I might
make some pots that might, being dried in the sun, be hard
enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold
anything that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as
this was necessary in the preparing corn, meal, &c., which
was the thing I was doing, I resolved to make some as large
as I could, and fit only to stand like jars, to hold what should
be put into them.
It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me,
to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste;
what odd, misshapen, ugly things I made; how many of
them fell in and how many fell out, the clay not being stiff
enough to bear its own weight; how many cracked by the
over-violent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and
how many fell in pieces with only removing, as well before
as after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after having
laboured hard to find the clay - to dig it, to temper it, to
bring it home, and work it - I could not make above two
large earthen ugly things (I cannot call them jars) in about
two months’ labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard,
I lifted them very gently up, and set them down again in
two great wicker baskets, which I had made on purpose for
them, that they might not break; and as between the pot
and the basket there was a little room to spare, I stuffed it
full of the rice and barley straw; and these two pots being
to stand always dry I thought would hold my dry corn, and
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perhaps the meal, when the corn was bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large
pots, yet I made several smaller things with better success;
such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins,
and any things my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun
baked them quite hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to get
an earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire,
which none of these could do. It happened after some time,
making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when I went
to put it out after I had done with it, I found a broken piece
of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard
as a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see
it, and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to
burn whole, if they would burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make
it burn some pots. I had no notion of a kiln, such as the
potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though I had
some lead to do it with; but I placed three large pipkins and
two or three pots in a pile, one upon another, and placed
my firewood all round it, with a great heap of embers under
them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and
upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite
through, and observed that they did not crack at all. When
I saw them clear red, I let them stand in that heat about
five or six hours, till I found one of them, though it did not
crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was mixed with
the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have
run into glass if I had gone on; so I slacked my fire gradually
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till the pots began to abate of the red colour; and watching
them all night, that I might not let the fire abate too fast,
in the morning I had three very good (I will not say hand-
some) pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as
could be desired, and one of them perfectly glazed with the
running of the sand.
After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no
sort of earthenware for my use; but I must needs say as to
the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one
may suppose, when I had no way of making them but as the
children make dirt pies, or as a woman would make pies
that never learned to raise paste.
No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to
mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot that would
bear the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay till they were
cold before I set one on the fire again with some water in
it to boil me some meat, which it did admirably well; and
with a piece of a kid I made some very good broth, though
I wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to
make it as good as I would have had it been.
My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp
or beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought
of arriving at that perfection of art with one pair of hands.
To supply this want, I was at a great loss; for, of all the trades
in the world, I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cut-
ter as for any whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it
with. I spent many a day to find out a great stone big enough
to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and could find
none at all, except what was in the solid rock, and which
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I had no way to dig or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks
in the island of hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy,
crumbling stone, which neither would bear the weight of
a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it
with sand. So, after a great deal of time lost in searching for
a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out for a great
block of hard wood, which I found, indeed, much easier;
and getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded it,
and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet, and
then with the help of fire and infinite labour, made a hollow
place in it, as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes. After
this, I made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood called
the iron-wood; and this I prepared and laid by against I had
my next crop of corn, which I proposed to myself to grind,
or rather pound into meal to make bread.
My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress
my meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk; with-
out which I did not see it possible I could have any bread.
This was a most difficult thing even to think on, for to be
sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it - I
mean fine thin canvas or stuff to searce the meal through.
And here I was at a full stop for many months; nor did I re-
ally know what to do. Linen I had none left but what was
mere rags; I had goat’s hair, but neither knew how to weave
it or spin it; and had I known how, here were no tools to
work it with. All the remedy that I found for this was, that
at last I did remember I had, among the seamen’s clothes
which were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of calico
or muslin; and with some pieces of these I made three small
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sieves proper enough for the work; and thus I made shift for
some years: how I did afterwards, I shall show in its place.
The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and
how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for first,
I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no supplying the
want, so I did not concern myself much about it. But for
an oven I was indeed in great pain. At length I found out
an experiment for that also, which was this: I made some
earthen-vessels very broad but not deep, that is to say, about
two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep. These I
burned in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid them
by; and when I wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon my
hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of my own
baking and burning also; but I should not call them square.
When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers
or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to
cover it all over, and there I let them lie till the hearth was
very hot. Then sweeping away all the embers, I set down my
loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot upon
them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to
keep in and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best
oven in the world, I baked my barley-loaves, and became in
little time a good pastrycook into the bargain; for I made
myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; but I made
no pies, neither had I anything to put into them supposing
I had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats.
It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up
most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be
observed that in the intervals of these things I had my new
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harvest and husbandry to manage; for I reaped my corn in
its season, and carried it home as well as I could, and laid
it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to rub
it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to
thrash it with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really
wanted to build my barns bigger; I wanted a place to lay it
up in, for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much,
that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice
as much or more; insomuch that now I resolved to begin to
use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while;
also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for
me a whole year, and to sow but once a year.
Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley
and rice were much more than I could consume in a year;
so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that
I sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully
provide me with bread, &c.
All the while these things were doing, you may be sure
my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land
which I had seen from the other side of the island; and I was
not without secret wishes that I were on shore there, fancy-
ing that, seeing the mainland, and an inhabited country, I
might find some way or other to convey myself further, and
perhaps at last find some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of
such an undertaking, and how I might fall into the hands of
savages, and perhaps such as I might have reason to think
far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa: that if I once
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came in their power, I should run a hazard of more than a
thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eat-
en; for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coast
were cannibals or man-eaters, and I knew by the latitude
that I could not be far from that shore. Then, supposing they
were not cannibals, yet they might kill me, as many Europe-
ans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even
when they had been ten or twenty together - much more I,
that was but one, and could make little or no defence; all
these things, I say, which I ought to have considered well;
and did come into my thoughts afterwards, yet gave me no
apprehensions at first, and my head ran mightily upon the
thought of getting over to the shore.
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat with
shoulder-of- mutton sail, with which I sailed above a thou-
sand miles on the coast of Africa; but this was in vain: then
I thought I would go and look at our ship’s boat, which, as I
have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way, in the
storm, when we were first cast away. She lay almost where
she did at first, but not quite; and was turned, by the force
of the waves and the winds, almost bottom upward, against
a high ridge of beachy, rough sand, but no water about her.
If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to have launched
her into the water, the boat would have done well enough,
and I might have gone back into the Brazils with her eas-
ily enough; but I might have foreseen that I could no more
turn her and set her upright upon her bottom than I could
remove the island; however, I went to the woods, and cut le-
vers and rollers, and brought them to the boat resolving to
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try what I could do; suggesting to myself that if I could but
turn her down, I might repair the damage she had received,
and she would be a very good boat, and I might go to sea in
her very easily.
I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil,
and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last find-
ing it impossible to heave it up with my little strength, I fell
to digging away the sand, to undermine it, and so to make
it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it
right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again,
or to get under it, much less to move it forward towards the
water; so I was forced to give it over; and yet, though I gave
over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the
main increased, rather than decreased, as the means for it
seemed impossible.
This at length put me upon thinking whether it was not
possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the
natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as I
might say, without hands, of the trunk of a great tree. This I
not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased myself ex-
tremely with the thoughts of making it, and with my having
much more convenience for it than any of the negroes or
Indians; but not at all considering the particular inconve-
niences which I lay under more than the Indians did - viz.
want of hands to move it, when it was made, into the water
- a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the
consequences of want of tools could be to them; for what
was it to me, if when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods,
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and with much trouble cut it down, if I had been able with
my tools to hew and dub the outside into the proper shape
of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow,
so as to make a boat of it - if, after all this, I must leave it
just there where I found it, and not be able to launch it into
the water?
One would have thought I could not have had the least
reflection upon my mind of my circumstances while I was
making this boat, but I should have immediately thought
how I should get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so
intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that I never once
considered how I should get it off the land: and it was re-
ally, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over
forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms of land,
where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that
ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased
myself with the design, without determining whether I
was ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of
launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop
to my inquiries into it by this foolish answer which I gave
myself - ‘Let me first make it; I warrant I will find some way
or other to get it along when it is done.’
This was a most preposterous method; but the eager-
ness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went. I felled a
cedar-tree, and I question much whether Solomon ever had
such a one for the building of the Temple of Jerusalem; it
was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the
stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of
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twenty-two feet; after which it lessened for a while, and then
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