Chapter 13: Wreck of a Spanish Ship

by Daniel Defoe

　　I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island,and was so naturalised to the place and the manner of living, that,could I but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would cometo the place to disturb me, I could have been content to havecapitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even to thelast moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old goat inthe cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions andamusements, which made the time pass a great deal more pleasantlywith me than it did before - first, I had taught my Poll, as Inoted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked soarticulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and helived with me no less than six-and-twenty years. How long he mighthave lived afterwards I know not, though I know they have a notionin the Brazils that they live a hundred years. My dog was apleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen yearsof my time, and then died of mere old age. As for my cats, theymultiplied, as I have observed, to that degree that I was obligedto shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring meand all I had; but at length, when the two old ones I brought withme were gone, and after some time continually driving them from me,and letting them have no provision with me, they all ran wild intothe woods, except two or three favourites, which I kept tame, andwhose young, when they had any, I always drowned; and these werepart of my family. Besides these I always kept two or threehousehold kids about me, whom I taught to feed out of my hand; andI had two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would allcall "Robin Crusoe," but none like my first; nor, indeed, did Itake the pains with any of them that I had done with him. I hadalso several tame sea-fowls, whose name I knew not, that I caughtupon the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes which Ihad planted before my castle-wall being now grown up to a goodthick grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bredthere, which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, Ibegan to he very well contented with the life I led, if I couldhave been secured from the dread of the savages. But it wasotherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people whoshall meet with my story to make this just observation from it: Howfrequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself weseek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the mostdreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of ourdeliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from theaffliction we are fallen into. I could give many examples of thisin the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing was it moreparticularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last yearsof solitary residence in this island.It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third year; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter Icannot call it), was the particular time of my harvest, andrequired me to be pretty much abroad in the fields, when, going outearly in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I wassurprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at adistance from me of about two miles, toward that part of the islandwhere I had observed some savages had been, as before, and not onthe other side; but, to my great affliction, it was on my side ofthe island.I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped shortwithin my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised;and yet I had no more peace within, from the apprehensions I hadthat if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find mycorn standing or cut, or any of my works or improvements, theywould immediately conclude that there were people in the place, andwould then never rest till they had found me out. In thisextremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladderafter me, and made all things without look as wild and natural as Icould.Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture ofdefence. I loaded all my cannon, as I called them - that is tosay, my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification - andall my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp -not forgetting seriously to commend myself to the Divineprotection, and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of thehands of the barbarians. I continued in this posture about twohours, and began to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I hadno spies to send out. After sitting a while longer, and musingwhat I should do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting inignorance longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill,where there was a flat place, as I observed before, and thenpulling the ladder after me, I set it up again and mounted the topof the hill, and pulling out my perspective glass, which I hadtaken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground,and began to look for the place. I presently found there were noless than nine naked savages sitting round a small fire they hadmade, not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the weatherbeing extremely hot, but, as I supposed, to dress some of theirbarbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them,whether alive or dead I could not tell.They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon theshore; and as it was then ebb of tide, they seemed to me to waitfor the return of the flood to go away again. It is not easy toimagine what confusion this sight put me into, especially seeingthem come on my side of the island, and so near to me; but when Iconsidered their coming must be always with the current of the ebb,I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfiedthat I might go abroad with safety all the time of the flood oftide, if they were not on shore before; and having made thisobservation, I went abroad about my harvest work with the morecomposure.As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to thewestward I saw them all take boat and row (or paddle as we call it)away. I should have observed, that for an hour or more before theywent off they were dancing, and I could easily discern theirpostures and gestures by my glass. I could not perceive, by mynicest observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not theleast covering upon them; but whether they were men or women Icould not distinguish.As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon myshoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by myside without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to makewent away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearanceof all; and as soon as I get thither, which was not in less thantwo hours (for I could not go quickly, being so loaded with arms asI was), I perceived there had been three canoes more of the savagesat that place; and looking out farther, I saw they were all at seatogether, making over for the main. This was a dreadful sight tome, especially as, going down to the shore, I could see the marksof horror which the dismal work they had been about had left behindit - viz. the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of humanbodies eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment andsport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that I nowbegan to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there,let them be whom or how many soever. It seemed evident to me thatthe visits which they made thus to this island were not veryfrequent, for it was above fifteen months before any more of themcame on shore there again - that is to say, I neither saw them norany footsteps or signals of them in all that time; for as to therainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least notso far. Yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of theconstant apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise: fromwhence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter thanthe suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off thatexpectation or those apprehensions.During all this time I was in a murdering humour, and spent most ofmy hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving howto circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should seethem - especially if they should be divided, as they were the lasttime, into two parties; nor did I consider at all that if I killedone party - suppose ten or a dozen - I was still the next day, orweek, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum,till I should be, at length, no less a murderer than they were inbeing man-eaters - and perhaps much more so. I spent my days nowin great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I shouldone day or other fall, into the hands of these merciless creatures;and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without lookingaround me with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now Ifound, to my great comfort, how happy it was that I had provided atame flock or herd of goats, for I durst not upon any account firemy gun, especially near that side of the island where they usuallycame, lest I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled from menow, I was sure to have them come again with perhaps two or threehundred canoes with them in a few days, and then I knew what toexpect. However, I wore out a year and three months more before Iever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them again, as Ishall soon observe. It is true they might have been there once ortwice; but either they made no stay, or at least I did not seethem; but in the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and inmy four-and-twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter withthem; of which in its place.The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or sixteen months'interval was very great; I slept unquietly, dreamed alwaysfrightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night.In the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind; and in the night Idreamed often of killing the savages and of the reasons why I mightjustify doing it.But to waive all this for a while. It was in the middle of May, onthe sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendarwould reckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it wason the sixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of wind allday, with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and; a very foulnight it was after it. I knew not what was the particular occasionof it, but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with veryserious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised withthe noise of a gun, as I thought, fired at sea. This was, to besure, a surprise quite of a different nature from any I had metwith before; for the notions this put into my thoughts were quiteof another kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable;and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the middle place of the rock,and pulled it after me; and mounting it the second time, got to thetop of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listenfor a second gun, which, accordingly, in about half a minute Iheard; and by the sound, knew that it was from that part of the seawhere I was driven down the current in my boat. I immediatelyconsidered that this must be some ship in distress, and that theyhad some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired thesefor signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had the presence ofmind at that minute to think, that though I could not help them, itmight be that they might help me; so I brought together all the drywood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set iton fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and,though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out; so that Iwas certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needssee it. And no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazedup, I heard another gun, and after that several others, all fromthe same quarter. I plied my fire all night long, till daybreak:and when it was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw somethingat a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sailor a hull I could not distinguish - no, not with my glass: thedistance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also;at least, it was so out at sea.I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that itdid not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship atanchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I tookmy gun in my hand, and ran towards the south side of the island tothe rocks where I had formerly been carried away by the current;and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectlyclear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of aship, cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which Ifound when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checkedthe violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, oreddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate,hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life. Thus,what is one man's safety is another man's destruction; for it seemsthese men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and therocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in thenight, the wind blowing hard at ENE. Had they seen the island, asI must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought,have endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help oftheir boat; but their firing off guns for help, especially whenthey saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts.First, I imagined that upon seeing my light they might have putthemselves into their boat, and endeavoured to make the shore: butthat the sea running very high, they might have been cast away.Other times I imagined that they might have lost their boat before,as might be the case many ways; particularly by the breaking of thesea upon their ship, which many times obliged men to stave, or takein pieces, their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard withtheir own hands. Other times I imagined they had some other shipor ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress they made,had taken them up, and carried them off. Other times I fanciedthey were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried awayby the current that I had been formerly in, were carried out intothe great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perishing:and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of starving, andof being in a condition to eat one another.As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition Iwas in, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poormen, and pity them; which had still this good effect upon my side,that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who hadso happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolatecondition; and that of two ships' companies, who were now cast awayupon this part of the world, not one life should be spared butmine. I learned here again to observe, that it is very rare thatthe providence of God casts us into any condition so low, or anymisery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankfulfor, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own. Suchcertainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much assee room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make it rationalso much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there,except the possibility only of their being taken up by another shipin company; and this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw notthe least sign or appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain,by any possible energy of words, what a strange longing I felt inmy soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus: "Oh thatthere had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul saved out ofthis ship, to have escaped to me, that I might but have had onecompanion, one fellow-creature, to have spoken to me and to haveconversed with!" In all the time of my solitary life I never feltso earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it.There are some secret springs in the affections which, when theyare set a-going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yetrendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, thatmotion carries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent,eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it isinsupportable. Such were these earnest wishings that but one manhad been saved. I believe I repeated the words, "Oh that it hadbeen but one!" a thousand times; and my desires were so moved byit, that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch together, andmy fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that if I had hadany soft thing in my hand I should have crushed it involuntarily;and the teeth in my head would strike together, and set against oneanother so strong, that for some time I could not part them again.Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and mannerof them. All I can do is to describe the fact, which was evensurprising to me when I found it, though I knew not from whence itproceeded; it was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and ofstrong ideas formed in my mind, realising the comfort which theconversation of one of my fellow-Christians would have been to me.But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both, forbadeit; for, till the last year of my being on this island, I neverknew whether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had onlythe affliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boycome on shore at the end of the island which was next theshipwreck. He had no clothes on but a seaman's waistcoat, a pairof open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but nothing todirect me so much as to guess what nation he was of. He hadnothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe -the last was to me of ten times more value than the first.It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boatto this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on boardthat might be useful to me. But that did not altogether press meso much as the possibility that there might be yet some livingcreature on board, whose life I might not only save, but might, bysaving that life, comfort my own to the last degree; and thisthought clung so to my heart that I could not be quiet night orday, but I must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; andcommitting the rest to God's providence, I thought the impressionwas so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted - that itmust come from some invisible direction, and that I should bewanting to myself if I did not go.Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, agreat pot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum(for I had still a great deal of that left), and a basket ofraisins; and thus, loading myself with everything necessary. Iwent down to my boat, got the water out of her, got her afloat,loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again for more. Mysecond cargo was a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up overmy head for a shade, another large pot of water, and about twodozen of small loaves, or barley cakes, more than before, with abottle of goat's milk and a cheese; all which with great labour andsweat I carried to my boat; and praying to God to direct my voyage,I put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, cameat last to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side.And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to ventureor not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ranconstantly on both sides of the island at a distance, and whichwere very terrible to me from the remembrance of the hazard I hadbeen in before, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw thatif I was driven into either of those currents, I should be carrieda great way out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach or sight of theisland again; and that then, as my boat was but small, if anylittle gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost.These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over myenterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on theshore, I stepped out, and sat down upon a rising bit of ground,very pensive and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage;when, as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned,and the flood come on; upon which my going was impracticable for somany hours. Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I shouldgo up to the highest piece of ground I could find, and observe, ifI could, how the sets of the tide or currents lay when the floodcame in, that I might judge whether, if I was driven one way out, Imight not expect to be driven another way home, with the samerapidity of the currents. This thought was no sooner in my headthan I cast my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlookedthe sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of thecurrents or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide myselfin my return. Here I found, that as the current of ebb set outclose by the south point of the island, so the current of the floodset in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothingto do but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, andI should do well enough.Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to setout with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the nightin my canoe, under the watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. Ifirst made a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feelthe benefit of the current, which set eastward, and which carriedme at a great rate; and yet did not so hurry me as the current onthe south side had done before, so as to take from me allgovernment of the boat; but having a strong steerage with mypaddle, I went at a great rate directly for the wreck, and in lessthan two hours I came up to it. It was a dismal sight to look at;the ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed inbetween two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her were beaten topieces by the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks,had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast werebrought by the board - that is to say, broken short off; but herbowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. When Icame close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming,yelped and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the seato come to me. I took him into the boat, but found him almost deadwith hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and hedevoured it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnightin the snow; I then gave the poor creature some fresh water, withwhich, if I would have let him, he would have burst himself. Afterthis I went on board; but the first sight I met with was two mendrowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with theirarms fast about one another. I concluded, as is indeed probable,that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke sohigh and so continually over her, that the men were not able tobear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of thewater, as much as if they had been under water. Besides the dog,there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor any goods,that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There weresome casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which laylower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I couldsee; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests,which I believe belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two ofthem into the boat, without examining what was in them. Had thestern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I ampersuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by what I found inthose two chests I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal ofwealth on board; and, if I may guess from the course she steered,she must have been bound from Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata,in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils to the Havannah,in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt,a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to anybody;and what became of the crew I then knew not.I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, ofabout twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with muchdifficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin, and a greatpowder-horn, with about four pounds of powder in it; as for themuskets, I had no occasion for them, so I left them, but took thepowder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wantedextremely, as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to makechocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog, I cameaway, the tide beginning to make home again - and the same evening,about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary andfatigued to the last degree. I reposed that night in the boat andin the morning I resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave,and not carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I gotall my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. Thecask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we hadat the Brazils; and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came toopen the chests, I found several things of great use to me - forexample, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinarykind, and filled with cordial waters, fine and very good; thebottles held about three pints each, and were tipped with silver.I found two pots of very good succades, or sweetmeats, so fastenedalso on the top that the salt-water had not hurt them; and two moreof the same, which the water had spoiled. I found some very goodshirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen and a halfof white linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the formerwere also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to wipe myface in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to the till in thechest, I found there three great bags of pieces of eight, whichheld about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them,wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some small barsor wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a pound. Inthe other chest were some clothes, but of little value; but, by thecircumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's mate; thoughthere was no powder in it, except two pounds of fine glazed powder,in three flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their fowling-pieceson occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage thatwas of any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner ofoccasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet, and Iwould have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes andstockings, which were things I greatly wanted, but had had none onmy feet for many years. I had, indeed, got two pair of shoes now,which I took off the feet of two drowned men whom I saw in thewreck, and I found two pair more in one of the chests, which werevery welcome to me; but they were not like our English shoes,either for ease or service, being rather what we call pumps thanshoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fifty pieces of eight,in rials, but no gold: I supposed this belonged to a poorer manthan the other, which seemed to belong to some officer. Well,however, I lugged this money home to my cave, and laid it up, as Ihad done that before which I had brought from our own ship; but itwas a great pity, as I said, that the other part of this ship hadnot come to my share: for I am satisfied I might have loaded mycanoe several times over with money; and, thought I, if I everescape to England, it might lie here safe enough till I come againand fetch it.