Chapter 11: Finds Print of Man's Foot on the Sand

by Daniel Defoe

　　It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my littlefamily sit down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince andlord of the whole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at myabsolute command; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take itaway, and no rebels among all my subjects. Then, to see how like aking I dined, too, all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as ifhe had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk tome. My dog, who was now grown old and crazy, and had found nospecies to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; andtwo cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other,expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especialfavour.But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first,for they were both of them dead, and had been interred near myhabitation by my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by Iknow not what kind of creature, these were two which I hadpreserved tame; whereas the rest ran wild in the woods, and becameindeed troublesome to me at last, for they would often come into myhouse, and plunder me too, till at last I was obliged to shootthem, and did kill a great many; at length they left me. With thisattendance and in this plentiful manner I lived; neither could I besaid to want anything but society; and of that, some time afterthis, I was likely to have too much.I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use ofmy boat, though very loath to run any more hazards; and thereforesometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and atother times I sat myself down contented enough without her. But Ihad a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of theisland where, as I have said in my last ramble, I went up the hillto see how the shore lay, and how the current set, that I might seewhat I had to do: this inclination increased upon me every day, andat length I resolved to travel thither by land, following the edgeof the shore. I did so; but had any one in England met such a manas I was, it must either have frightened him, or raised a greatdeal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still to look atmyself, I could not but smile at the notion of my travellingthrough Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a dress. Bepleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows.I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with aflap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as toshoot the rain off from running into my neck, nothing being sohurtful in these climates as the rain upon the flesh under theclothes.I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down toabout the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breechesof the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat,whose hair hung down such a length on either side that, likepantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; stockings andshoes I had none, but had made me a pair of somethings, I scarceknew what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, andlace on either side like spatterdashes, but of a most barbarousshape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew togetherwith two thongs of the same instead of buckles, and in a kind of afrog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung alittle saw and a hatchet, one on one side and one on the other. Ihad another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same manner,which hung over my shoulder, and at the end of it, under my leftarm, hung two pouches, both made of goat's skin too, in one ofwhich hung my powder, in the other my shot. At my back I carriedmy basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a greatclumsy, ugly, goat's-skin umbrella, but which, after all, was themost necessary thing I had about me next to my gun. As for myface, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one mightexpect from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nineor ten degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered togrow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had bothscissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, exceptwhat grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair ofMahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by some Turks atSallee, for the Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did; ofthese moustachios, or whiskers, I will not say they were longenough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length andshape monstrous enough, and such as in England would have passedfor frightful.But all this is by-the-bye; for as to my figure, I had so few toobserve me that it was of no manner of consequence, so I say nomore of that. In this kind of dress I went my new journey, and wasout five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore,directly to the place where I first brought my boat to an anchor toget upon the rocks; and having no boat now to take care of, I wentover the land a nearer way to the same height that I was uponbefore, when, looking forward to the points of the rocks which layout, and which I was obliged to double with my boat, as is saidabove, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet - norippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in otherplaces. I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolvedto spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing from thesets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently convincedhow it was - viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, andjoining with the current of waters from some great river on theshore, must be the occasion of this current, and that, according asthe wind blew more forcibly from the west or from the north, thiscurrent came nearer or went farther from the shore; for, waitingthereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and then thetide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before,only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from theshore, whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurriedme and my canoe along with it, which at another time it would nothave done.This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but toobserve the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might veryeasily bring my boat about the island again; but when I began tothink of putting it in practice, I had such terror upon my spiritsat the remembrance of the danger I had been in, that I could notthink of it again with any patience, but, on the contrary, I tookup another resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious -and this was, that I would build, or rather make, me anotherperiagua or canoe, and so have one for one side of the island, andone for the other.You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, twoplantations in the island - one my little fortification or tent,with the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave behind me,which by this time I had enlarged into several apartments or caves,one within another. One of these, which was the driest andlargest, and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification - thatis to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock - was all filledup with the large earthen pots of which I have given an account,and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold fiveor six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of provisions,especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw,and the other rubbed out with my hand.As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, thosepiles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, andspread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, toany one's view, of any habitation behind them.Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land,and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I keptduly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvestin its season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I hadmore land adjoining as fit as that.Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerableplantation there also; for, first, I had my little bower, as Icalled it, which I kept in repair - that is to say, I kept thehedge which encircled it in constantly fitted up to its usualheight, the ladder standing always in the inside. I kept thetrees, which at first were no more than stakes, but were now grownvery firm and tall, always cut, so that they might spread and growthick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which they dideffectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had my tent alwaysstanding, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up forthat purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; andunder this I had made me a squab or couch with the skins of thecreatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanketlaid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I hadsaved; and a great watch-coat to cover me. And here, whenever Ihad occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my countryhabitation.Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to saymy goats, and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fenceand enclose this ground. I was so anxious to see it kept entire,lest the goats should break through, that I never left off till,with infinite labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so fullof small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather apale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand throughbetween them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they alldid in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like awall, indeed stronger than any wall.This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared nopains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for mycomfortable support, for I considered the keeping up a breed oftame creatures thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh,milk, butter, and cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, ifit were to be forty years; and that keeping them in my reachdepended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a degreethat I might be sure of keeping them together; which by thismethod, indeed, I so effectually secured, that when these littlestakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick that I wasforced to pull some of them up again.In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principallydepended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I neverfailed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeabledainty of my whole diet; and indeed they were not only agreeable,but medicinal, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the lastdegree.As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and theplace where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay herein my way thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and Ikept all things about or belonging to her in very good order.Sometimes I went out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardousvoyages would I go, scarcely ever above a stone's cast or two fromthe shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of myknowledge again by the currents or winds, or any other accident.But now I come to a new scene of my life. It happened one day,about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised withthe print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plainto be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if Ihad seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I couldhear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground tolook farther; I went up the shore and down the shore, but it wasall one; I could see no other impression but that one. I went toit again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it mightnot be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there wasexactly the print of a foot - toes, heel, and every part of a foot.How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine;but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectlyconfused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, notfeeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the lastdegree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistakingevery bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be aman. Nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes myaffrighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wildideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange,unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.When I came to my castle (for so I think I called it ever afterthis), I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by theladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock,which I had called a door, I cannot remember; no, nor could Iremember the next morning, for never frightened hare fled to cover,or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than I to this retreat.I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of myfright, the greater my apprehensions were, which is somethingcontrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the usualpractice of all creatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with myown frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismalimaginations to myself, even though I was now a great way off.Sometimes I fancied it must be the devil, and reason joined in withme in this supposition, for how should any other thing in humanshape come into the place? Where was the vessel that brought them?What marks were there of any other footstep? And how was itpossible a man should come there? But then, to think that Satanshould take human shape upon him in such a place, where there couldbe no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his footbehind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could not besure I should see it - this was an amusement the other way. Iconsidered that the devil might have found out abundance of otherways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot;that as I lived quite on the other side of the island, he wouldnever have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where itwas ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not, and inthe sand too, which the first surge of the sea, upon a high wind,would have defaced entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with thething itself and with all the notions we usually entertain of thesubtlety of the devil.Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of allapprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concludedthen that it must be some more dangerous creature - viz. that itmust be some of the savages of the mainland opposite who hadwandered out to sea in their canoes, and either driven by thecurrents or by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been onshore, but were gone away again to sea; being as loath, perhaps, tohave stayed in this desolate island as I would have been to havehad them.While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was verythankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to bethereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, bywhich they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been inthe place, and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terriblethoughts racked my imagination about their having found out myboat, and that there were people here; and that, if so, I shouldcertainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me;that if it should happen that they should not find me, yet theywould find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry away all myflock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that formerconfidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experienceas I had had of His goodness; as if He that had fed me by miraclehitherto could not preserve, by His power, the provision which Hehad made for me by His goodness. I reproached myself with mylaziness, that would not sow any more corn one year than would justserve me till the next season, as if no accident could intervene toprevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the ground; and this Ithought so just a reproof, that I resolved for the future to havetwo or three years' corn beforehand; so that, whatever might come,I might not perish for want of bread.How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and bywhat secret different springs are the affections hurried about, asdifferent circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow wehate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire whatto-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. Thiswas exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively mannerimaginable; for I, whose only affliction was that I seemed banishedfrom human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by theboundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I callsilent life; that I was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to benumbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of Hiscreatures; that to have seen one of my own species would haveseemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatestblessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing ofsalvation, could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at thevery apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into theground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a man having sethis foot in the island.Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a greatmany curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recoveredmy first surprise. I considered that this was the station of lifethe infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined forme; that as I could not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdommight be in all this, so I was not to dispute His sovereignty; who,as I was His creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, togovern and dispose of me absolutely as He thought fit; and who, asI was a creature that had offended Him, had likewise a judicialright to condemn me to what punishment He thought fit; and that itwas my part to submit to bear His indignation, because I had sinnedagainst Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not onlyrighteous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish andafflict me, so He was able to deliver me: that if He did not thinkfit to do so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myselfabsolutely and entirely to His will; and, on the other hand, it wasmy duty also to hope in Him, pray to Him, and quietly to attend tothe dictates and directions of His daily providence,These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeksand months: and one particular effect of my cogitations on thisoccasion I cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed, andfilled with thoughts about my danger from the appearances ofsavages, I found it discomposed me very much; upon which thesewords of the Scripture came into my thoughts, "Call upon Me in theday of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorifyMe." Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was notonly comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestlyto God for deliverance: when I had done praying I took up my Bible,and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were,"Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthenthy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impossible to expressthe comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down thebook, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion.In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections,it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a merechimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my ownfoot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up alittle, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion;that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might I not comethat way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to theboat? Again, I considered also that I could by no means tell forcertain where I had trod, and where I had not; and that if, atlast, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played the partof those fools who try to make stories of spectres and apparitions,and then are frightened at them more than anybody.Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I hadnot stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that Ibegan to starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing withindoors but some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goatswanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening diversion:and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience forwant of it; and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almostdried up their milk. Encouraging myself, therefore, with thebelief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet,and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I beganto go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk my flock:but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked behindme, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket andrun for my life, it would have made any one have thought I washaunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately mostterribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I went downthus two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began to be alittle bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but myown imagination; but I could not persuade myself fully of this tillI should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot,and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude orfitness, that I might be assured it was my own foot: but when Icame to the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when Ilaid up my boat I could not possibly be on shore anywherethereabouts; secondly, when I came to measure the mark with my ownfoot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both thesethings filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me thevapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook with cold likeone in an ague; and I went home again, filled with the belief thatsome man or men had been on shore there; or, in short, that theisland was inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware;and what course to take for my security I knew not.Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear!It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers fortheir relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throwdown my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into thewoods, lest the enemy should find them, and then frequent theisland in prospect of the same or the like booty: then the simplething of digging up my two corn-fields, lest they should find sucha grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the island: thento demolish my bower and tent, that they might not see any vestigesof habitation, and be prompted to look farther, in order to findout the persons inhabiting.These were the subject of the first night's cogitations after I wascome home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun mymind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours. Thus,fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than dangeritself, when apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden ofanxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious about:and what was worse than all this, I had not that relief in thistrouble that from the resignation I used to practise I hoped tohave. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not only thatthe Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken him; for Idid not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God inmy distress, and resting upon His providence, as I had done before,for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I had atleast been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, andperhaps carried through it with more resolution.This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in themorning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind,been as it were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept verysoundly, and waked much better composed than I had ever beenbefore. And now I began to think sedately; and, upon debate withmyself, I concluded that this island (which was so exceedinglypleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the mainland than as I hadseen) was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; thatalthough there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot,yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who,either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven bycross winds, might come to this place; that I had lived therefifteen years now and had not met with the least shadow or figureof any people yet; and that, if at any time they should be drivenhere, it was probable they went away again as soon as ever theycould, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here upon anyoccasion; that the most I could suggest any danger from was fromany casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main,who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were hereagainst their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off againwith all possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lestthey should not have the help of the tides and daylight back again;and that, therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider of somesafe retreat, in case I should see any savages land upon the spot.Now, I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as tobring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyondwhere my fortification joined to the rock: upon maturelyconsidering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a secondfortification, in the manner of a semicircle, at a distance from mywall, just where I had planted a double row of trees about twelveyears before, of which I made mention: these trees having beenplanted so thick before, they wanted but few piles to be drivenbetween them, that they might be thicker and stronger, and my wallwould be soon finished. So that I had now a double wall; and myouter wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, andeverything I could think of, to make it strong; having in it sevenlittle holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In theinside of this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick withcontinually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at thefoot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holesI contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I hadgot seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted like my cannon,and fitted them into frames, that held them like a carriage, sothat I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes' time; thiswall I was many a weary month in finishing, and yet never thoughtmyself safe till it was done.When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for agreat length every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the osier-like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand;insomuch that I believe I might set in near twenty thousand ofthem, leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, that Imight have room to see an enemy, and they might have no shelterfrom the young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer wall.Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or sixyears' time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrouslythick and strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and nomen, of what kind soever, could ever imagine that there wasanything beyond it, much less a habitation. As for the way which Iproposed to myself to go in and out (for I left no avenue), it wasby setting two ladders, one to a part of the rock which was low,and then broke in, and left room to place another ladder upon that;so when the two ladders were taken down no man living could comedown to me without doing himself mischief; and if they had comedown, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for myown preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were notaltogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at thattime more than my mere fear suggested to me.