Chapter 12: A Cave Retreat

by Daniel Defoe

　　While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my otheraffairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd ofgoats: they were not only a ready supply to me on every occasion,and began to be sufficient for me, without the expense of powderand shot, but also without the fatigue of hunting after the wildones; and I was loath to lose the advantage of them, and to havethem all to nurse up over again.For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of buttwo ways to preserve them: one was, to find another convenientplace to dig a cave underground, and to drive them into it everynight; and the other was to enclose two or three little bits ofland, remote from one another, and as much concealed as I could,where I might keep about half-a-dozen young goats in each place; sothat if any disaster happened to the flock in general, I might beable to raise them again with little trouble and time: and thisthough it would require a good deal of time and labour, I thoughtwas the most rational design.Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired partsof the island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private,indeed, as my heart could wish: it was a little damp piece ofground in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as isobserved, I almost lost myself once before, endeavouring to comeback that way from the eastern part of the island. Here I found aclear piece of land, near three acres, so surrounded with woodsthat it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least, it did notwant near so much labour to make it so as the other piece of groundI had worked so hard at.I immediately went to work with this piece of ground; and in lessthan a month's time I had so fenced it round that my flock, orherd, call it which you please, which were not so wild now as atfirst they might be supposed to be, were well enough secured in it:so, without any further delay, I removed ten young she-goats andtwo he-goats to this piece, and when they were there I continued toperfect the fence till I had made it as secure as the other; which,however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by agreat deal. All this labour I was at the expense of, purely frommy apprehensions on account of the print of a man's foot; for asyet I had never seen any human creature come near the island; and Ihad now lived two years under this uneasiness, which, indeed, mademy life much less comfortable than it was before, as may be wellimagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant snareof the fear of man. And this I must observe, with grief, too, thatthe discomposure of my mind had great impression also upon thereligious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of fallinginto the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits,that I seldom found myself in a due temper for application to myMaker; at least, not with the sedate calmness and resignation ofsoul which I was wont to do: I rather prayed to God as under greataffliction and pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, and inexpectation every night of being murdered and devoured beforemorning; and I must testify, from my experience, that a temper ofpeace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much the more properframe for prayer than that of terror and discomposure: and thatunder the dread of mischief impending, a man is no more fit for acomforting performance of the duty of praying to God than he is fora repentance on a sick-bed; for these discomposures affect themind, as the others do the body; and the discomposure of the mindmust necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, andmuch greater; praying to God being properly an act of the mind, notof the body.But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my littleliving stock, I went about the whole island, searching for anotherprivate place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more tothe west point of the island than I had ever done yet, and lookingout to sea, I thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a greatdistance. I had found a perspective glass or two in one of theseamen's chests, which I saved out of our ship, but I had it notabout me; and this was so remote that I could not tell what to makeof it, though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to hold tolook any longer; whether it was a boat or not I do not know, but asI descended from the hill I could see no more of it, so I gave itover; only I resolved to go no more out without a perspective glassin my pocket. When I was come down the hill to the end of theisland, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was presentlyconvinced that the seeing the print of a man's foot was not such astrange thing in the island as I imagined: and but that it was aspecial providence that I was cast upon the side of the islandwhere the savages never came, I should easily have known thatnothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, whenthey happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over tothat side of the island for harbour: likewise, as they often metand fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken anyprisoners, would bring them over to this shore, where, according totheir dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill andeat them; of which hereafter.When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, beingthe SW. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed;nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind atseeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bonesof human bodies; and particularly I observed a place where therehad been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like acockpit, where I supposed the savage wretches had sat down to theirhuman feastings upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures.I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that Ientertained no notions of any danger to myself from it for a longwhile: all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such apitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of thedegeneracy of human nature, which, though I had heard of it often,yet I never had so near a view of before; in short, I turned awaymy face from the horrid spectacle; my stomach grew sick, and I wasjust at the point of fainting, when nature discharged the disorderfrom my stomach; and having vomited with uncommon violence, I was alittle relieved, but could not bear to stay in the place a moment;so I got up the hill again with all the speed I could, and walkedon towards my own habitation.When I came a little out of that part of the island I stood stillawhile, as amazed, and then, recovering myself, I looked up withthe utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in myeyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of theworld where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures asthese; and that, though I had esteemed my present condition verymiserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it that I had stillmore to give thanks for than to complain of: and this, above all,that I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted withthe knowledge of Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was afelicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery whichI had suffered, or could suffer.In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and beganto be much easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, thanever I was before: for I observed that these wretches never came tothis island in search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking,not wanting, or not expecting anything here; and having often, nodoubt, been up the covered, woody part of it without findinganything to their purpose. I knew I had been here now almosteighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of human creaturethere before; and I might be eighteen years more as entirelyconcealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself to them, whichI had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only business tokeep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a bettersort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet Ientertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I havebeen speaking of, and of the wretched, inhuman custom of theirdevouring and eating one another up, that I continued pensive andsad, and kept close within my own circle for almost two years afterthis: when I say my own circle, I mean by it my three plantations -viz. my castle, my country seat (which I called my bower), and myenclosure in the woods: nor did I look after this for any other usethan an enclosure for my goats; for the aversion which nature gaveme to these hellish wretches was such, that I was as fearful ofseeing them as of seeing the devil himself. I did not so much asgo to look after my boat all this time, but began rather to thinkof making another; for I could not think of ever making any moreattempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest Ishould meet with some of these creatures at sea; in which case, ifI had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what wouldhave been my lot.Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no dangerof being discovered by these people, began to wear off myuneasiness about them; and I began to live just in the samecomposed manner as before, only with this difference, that I usedmore caution, and kept my eyes more about me than I did before,lest I should happen to be seen by any of them; and particularly, Iwas more cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them, being on theisland, should happen to hear it. It was, therefore, a very goodprovidence to me that I had furnished myself with a tame breed ofgoats, and that I had no need to hunt any more about the woods, orshoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after this, it was bytraps and snares, as I had done before; so that for two years afterthis I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never wentout without it; and what was more, as I had saved three pistols outof the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two ofthem, sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up oneof the great cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me abelt to hang it on also; so that I was now a most formidable fellowto look at when I went abroad, if you add to the former descriptionof myself the particular of two pistols, and a broadsword hangingat my side in a belt, but without a scabbard.Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm, sedateway of living. All these things tended to show me more and morehow far my condition was from being miserable, compared to someothers; nay, to many other particulars of life which it might havepleased God to have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting howlittle repining there would be among mankind at any condition oflife if people would rather compare their condition with those thatwere worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing themwith those which are better, to assist their murmurings andcomplainings.As in my present condition there were not really many things whichI wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in aboutthese savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my ownpreservation, had taken off the edge of my invention, for my ownconveniences; and I had dropped a good design, which I had oncebent my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make someof my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself some beer.This was really a whimsical thought, and I reproved myself oftenfor the simplicity of it: for I presently saw there would be thewant of several things necessary to the making my beer that itwould be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to preserveit in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I couldnever compass: no, though I spent not only many days, but weeks,nay months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the nextplace, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to made it work, nocopper or kettle to make it boil; and yet with all these thingswanting, I verily believe, had not the frights and terrors I was inabout the savages intervened, I had undertaken it, and perhapsbrought it to pass too; for I seldom gave anything over withoutaccomplishing it, when once I had it in my head to began it. Butmy invention now ran quite another way; for night and day I couldthink of nothing but how I might destroy some of the monsters intheir cruel, bloody entertainment, and if possible save the victimthey should bring hither to destroy. It would take up a largervolume than this whole work is intended to be to set down all thecontrivances I hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts, forthe destroying these creatures, or at least frightening them so asto prevent their coming hither any more: but all this was abortive;nothing could be possible to take effect, unless I was to be thereto do it myself: and what could one man do among them, when perhapsthere might be twenty or thirty of them together with their darts,or their bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to amark as I could with my gun?Sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place where theymade their fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder,which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire,and blow up all that was near it: but as, in the first place, Ishould be unwilling to waste so much powder upon them, my storebeing now within the quantity of one barrel, so neither could I besure of its going off at any certain time, when it might surprisethem; and, at best, that it would do little more than just blow thefire about their ears and fright them, but not sufficient to makethem forsake the place: so I laid it aside; and then proposed thatI would place myself in ambush in some convenient place, with mythree guns all double-loaded, and in the middle of their bloodyceremony let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill or woundperhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling in upon themwith my three pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that, ifthere were twenty, I should kill them all. This fancy pleased mythoughts for some weeks, and I was so full of it that I oftendreamed of it, and, sometimes, that I was just going to let fly atthem in my sleep. I went so far with it in my imagination that Iemployed myself several days to find out proper places to putmyself in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them, and I wentfrequently to the place itself, which was now grown more familiarto me; but while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revengeand a bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as Imay call it, the horror I had at the place, and at the signals ofthe barbarous wretches devouring one another, abetted my malice.Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill where I wassatisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of their boatscoming; and might then, even before they would be ready to come onshore, convey myself unseen into some thickets of trees, in one ofwhich there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely; andthere I might sit and observe all their bloody doings, and take myfull aim at their heads, when they were so close together as thatit would be next to impossible that I should miss my shot, or thatI could fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot. Inthis place, then, I resolved to fulfil my design; and accordingly Iprepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The twomuskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or fivesmaller bullets, about the size of pistol bullets; and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot of the largestsize; I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each; and,in this posture, well provided with ammunition for a second andthird charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in myimagination put it in practice, I continually made my tour everymorning to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as Icalled it, about three miles or more, to see if I could observe anyboats upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing overtowards it; but I began to tire of this hard duty, after I had fortwo or three months constantly kept my watch, but came always backwithout any discovery; there having not, in all that time, been theleast appearance, not only on or near the shore, but on the wholeocean, so far as my eye or glass could reach every way.As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out, so longalso I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to beall the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution asthe killing twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which Ihad not at all entered into any discussion of in my thoughts, anyfarther than my passions were at first fired by the horror Iconceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that country,who, it seems, had been suffered by Providence, in His wisedisposition of the world, to have no other guide than that of theirown abominable and vitiated passions; and consequently were left,and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act such horrid things,and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature, entirelyabandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellish degeneracy, couldhave run them into. But now, when, as I have said, I began to beweary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long and sofar every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself beganto alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to considerwhat I was going to engage in; what authority or call I had topretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals,whom Heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunishedto go on, and to be as it were the executioners of His judgmentsone upon another; how far these people were offenders against me,and what right I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood whichthey shed promiscuously upon one another. I debated this veryoften with myself thus: "How do I know what God Himself judges inthis particular case? It is certain these people do not committhis as a crime; it is not against their own consciences reproving,or their light reproaching them; they do not know it to be anoffence, and then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we doin almost all the sins we commit. They think it no more a crime tokill a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox; or to eathuman flesh than we do to eat mutton."When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I wascertainly in the wrong; that these people were not murderers, inthe sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any morethan those Christians were murderers who often put to death theprisoners taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions,put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter,though they threw down their arms and submitted. In the nextplace, it occurred to me that although the usage they gave oneanother was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really nothing tome: these people had done me no injury: that if they attempted, orI saw it necessary, for my immediate preservation, to fall uponthem, something might be said for it: but that I was yet out oftheir power, and they really had no knowledge of me, andconsequently no design upon me; and therefore it could not be justfor me to fall upon them; that this would justify the conduct ofthe Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in America, wherethey destroyed millions of these people; who, however they wereidolators and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarousrites in their customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to theiridols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; andthat the rooting them out of the country is spoken of with theutmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spaniards themselvesat this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as amere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty,unjustifiable either to God or man; and for which the very name ofa Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible, to all peopleof humanity or of Christian compassion; as if the kingdom of Spainwere particularly eminent for the produce of a race of men who werewithout principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity tothe miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper inthe mind.These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of afull stop; and I began by little and little to be off my design,and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution toattack the savages; and that it was not my business to meddle withthem, unless they first attacked me; and this it was my business,if possible, to prevent: but that, if I were discovered andattacked by them, I knew my duty. On the other hand, I argued withmyself that this really was the way not to deliver myself, butentirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless I was sure to killevery one that not only should be on shore at that time, but thatshould ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped totell their country-people what had happened, they would come overagain by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and Ishould only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, atpresent, I had no manner of occasion for. Upon the whole, Iconcluded that I ought, neither in principle nor in policy, one wayor other, to concern myself in this affair: that my business was,by all possible means to conceal myself from them, and not to leavethe least sign for them to guess by that there were any livingcreatures upon the island - I mean of human shape. Religion joinedin with this prudential resolution; and I was convinced now, manyways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was laying all mybloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures - I meaninnocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guilty of towardsone another, I had nothing to do with them; they were national, andI ought to leave them to the justice of God, who is the Governor ofnations, and knows how, by national punishments, to make a justretribution for national offences, and to bring public judgmentsupon those who offend in a public manner, by such ways as bestplease Him. This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was agreater satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to doa thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would have beenno less a sin than that of wilful murder if I had committed it; andI gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that He had thusdelivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching Him to grant me theprotection of His providence, that I might not fall into the handsof the barbarians, or that I might not lay my hands upon them,unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence ofmy own life.In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and sofar was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon thesewretches, that in all that time I never once went up the hill tosee whether there were any of them in sight, or to know whether anyof them had been on shore there or not, that I might not be temptedto renew any of my contrivances against them, or be provoked by anyadvantage that might present itself to fall upon them; only this Idid: I went and removed my boat, which I had on the other side ofthe island, and carried it down to the east end of the wholeisland, where I ran it into a little cove, which I found under somehigh rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the currents, thesavages durst not, at least would not, come with their boats uponany account whatever. With my boat I carried away everything thatI had left there belonging to her, though not necessary for thebare going thither - viz. a mast and sail which I had made for her,and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be calledeither anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best I could make ofits kind: all these I removed, that there might not be the leastshadow for discovery, or appearance of any boat, or of any humanhabitation upon the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as Isaid, more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell exceptupon my constant employment, to milk my she-goats, and manage mylittle flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other partof the island, was out of danger; for certain, it is that thesesavage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came withany thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently neverwandered off from the coast, and I doubt not but they might havebeen several times on shore after my apprehensions of them had mademe cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked back with somehorror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been if Ihad chopped upon them and been discovered before that; when, nakedand unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often only withsmall shot, I walked everywhere, peeping and peering about theisland, to see what I could get; what a surprise should I have beenin if, when I discovered the print of a man's foot, I had, insteadof that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuingme, and by the swiftness of their running no possibility of myescaping them! The thoughts of this sometimes sank my very soulwithin me, and distressed my mind so much that I could not soonrecover it, to think what I should have done, and how I should notonly have been unable to resist them, but even should not have hadpresence of mind enough to do what I might have done; much lesswhat now, after so much consideration and preparation, I might beable to do. Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, Iwould be melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while; butI resolved it all at last into thankfulness to that Providencewhich had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and had kept mefrom those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent indelivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of anysuch thing depending, or the least supposition of its beingpossible. This renewed a contemplation which often had come intomy thoughts in former times, when first I began to see the mercifuldispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life;how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it; how,when we are in a quandary as we call it, a doubt or hesitationwhether to go this way or that way, a secret hint shall direct usthis way, when we intended to go that way: nay, when sense, our owninclination, and perhaps business has called us to go the otherway, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from we know not whatsprings, and by we know not what power, shall overrule us to gothis way; and it shall afterwards appear that had we gone that way,which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought tohave gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these andmany like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule with me,that whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of mind todoing or not doing anything that presented, or going this way orthat way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate; though I knewno other reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hungupon my mind. I could give many examples of the success of thisconduct in the course of my life, but more especially in the latterpart of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasionswhich it is very likely I might have taken notice of, if I had seenwith the same eyes then that I see with now. But it is never toolate to be wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men, whoselives are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, oreven though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secretintimations of Providence, let them come from what invisibleintelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhapscannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converseof spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied andthose unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; ofwhich I shall have occasion to give some remarkable instances inthe remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confessthat these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and theconcern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and toall the contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodationsand conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon myhands than that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop astick of wood now, for fear the noise I might make should be heard:much less would I fire a gun for the same reason: and above all Iwas intolerably uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which isvisible at a great distance in the day, should betray me. For thisreason, I removed that part of my business which required fire,such as burning of pots and pipes, &c., into my new apartment inthe woods; where, after I had been some time, I found, to myunspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, whichwent in a vast way, and where, I daresay, no savage, had he been atthe mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in; nor, indeed,would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much asa safe retreat.The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where,by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason toascribe all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down somethick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on I mustobserve the reason of my making this charcoal, which was this - Iwas afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before;and yet I could not live there without baking my bread, cooking mymeat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seendone in England, under turf, till it became chark or dry coal: andthen putting the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, andperform the other services for which fire was wanting, withoutdanger of smoke. But this is by-the-bye. While I was cutting downsome wood here, I perceived that, behind a very thick branch of lowbrushwood or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place: I wascurious to look in it; and getting with difficulty into the mouthof it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient forme to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me: but I mustconfess to you that I made more haste out than I did in, whenlooking farther into the place, and which was perfectly dark, I sawtwo broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man Iknew not, which twinkled like two stars; the dim light from thecave's mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection.However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began to callmyself a thousand fools, and to think that he that was afraid tosee the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island allalone; and that I might well think there was nothing in this cavethat was more frightful than myself. Upon this, plucking up mycourage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushed again, with thestick flaming in my hand: I had not gone three steps in before Iwas almost as frightened as before; for I heard a very loud sigh,like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a brokennoise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep sigh again. Istepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise that itput me into a cold sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I willnot answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. Butstill plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouragingmyself a little with considering that the power and presence of Godwas everywhere, and was able to protect me, I stepped forwardagain, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a littleover my head, I saw lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful oldhe-goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life,and, dying, indeed, of mere old age. I stirred him a little to seeif I could get him out, and he essayed to get up, but was not ableto raise himself; and I thought with myself he might even lie there- for if he had frightened me, so he would certainly fright any ofthe savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come in therewhile he had any life in him.I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me,when I found the cave was but very small - that is to say, it mightbe about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither roundnor square, no hands having ever been employed in making it butthose of mere Nature. I observed also that there was a place atthe farther side of it that went in further, but was so low that itrequired me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into it, andwhither it went I knew not; so, having no candle, I gave it overfor that time, but resolved to go again the next day provided withcandles and a tinder-box, which I had made of the lock of one ofthe muskets, with some wildfire in the pan.Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles ofmy own making (for I made very good candles now of goat's tallow,but was hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, and sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles); andgoing into this low place I was obliged to creep upon all-fours asI have said, almost ten yards - which, by the way, I thought was aventure bold enough, considering that I knew not how far it mightgo, nor what was beyond it. When I had got through the strait, Ifound the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty feet; butnever was such a glorious sight seen in the island, I daresay, asit was to look round the sides and roof of this vault or cave - thewall reflected a hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles.What it was in the rock - whether diamonds or any other preciousstones, or gold which I rather supposed it to be - I knew not. Theplace I was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, thoughperfectly dark; the floor was dry and level, and had a sort of asmall loose gravel upon it, so that there was no nauseous orvenomous creature to be seen, neither was there any damp or wet onthe sides or roof. The only difficulty in it was the entrance -which, however, as it was a place of security, and such a retreatas I wanted; I thought was a convenience; so that I was reallyrejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, tobring some of those things which I was most anxious about to thisplace: particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine ofpowder, and all my spare arms - viz. two fowling-pieces - for I hadthree in all - and three muskets - for of them I had eight in all;so I kept in my castle only five, which stood ready mounted likepieces of cannon on my outmost fence, and were ready also to takeout upon any expedition. Upon this occasion of removing myammunition I happened to open the barrel of powder which I took upout of the sea, and which had been wet, and I found that the waterhad penetrated about three or four inches into the powder on everyside, which caking and growing hard, had preserved the inside likea kernel in the shell, so that I had near sixty pounds of very goodpowder in the centre of the cask. This was a very agreeablediscovery to me at that time; so I carried all away thither, neverkeeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle,for fear of a surprise of any kind; I also carried thither all thelead I had left for bullets.I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who were saidto live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come atthem; for I persuaded myself, while I was here, that if fivehundred savages were to hunt me, they could never find me out - orif they did, they would not venture to attack me here. The oldgoat whom I found expiring died in the mouth of the cave the nextday after I made this discovery; and I found it much easier to diga great hole there, and throw him in and cover him with earth, thanto drag him out; so I interred him there, to prevent offence to mynose.