Chapter 5: Builds a House - The Journal

by Daniel Defoe

　　SEPTEMBER 30, 1659. - I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, beingshipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore onthis dismal, unfortunate island, which I called "The Island ofDespair"; all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, andmyself almost dead.All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismalcircumstances I was brought to - viz. I had neither food, house,clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to; and in despair of any relief,saw nothing but death before me - either that I should be devouredby wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for wantof food. At the approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear ofwild creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all night.OCTOBER 1. - In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the shiphad floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again muchnearer the island; which, as it was some comfort, on one hand -for, seeing her set upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, ifthe wind abated, I might get on board, and get some food andnecessaries out of her for my relief - so, on the other hand, itrenewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if wehad all stayed on board, might have saved the ship, or, at least,that they would not have been all drowned as they were; and that,had the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat outof the ruins of the ship to have carried us to some other part ofthe world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing myself onthese things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, I wentupon the sand as near as I could, and then swam on board. This dayalso it continued raining, though with no wind at all.FROM THE 1ST OF OCTOBER TO THE 24TH. - All these days entirelyspent in many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship,which I brought on shore every tide of flood upon rafts. Much rainalso in the days, though with some intervals of fair weather; butit seems this was the rainy season.OCT. 20. - I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon it;but, being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, Irecovered many of them when the tide was out.OCT. 25. - It rained all night and all day, with some gusts ofwind; during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blowinga little harder than before, and was no more to be seen, except thewreck of her, and that only at low water. I spent this day incovering and securing the goods which I had saved, that the rainmight not spoil them.OCT. 26. - I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out aplace to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself fromany attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men. Towardsnight, I fixed upon a proper place, under a rock, and marked out asemicircle for my encampment; which I resolved to strengthen with awork, wall, or fortification, made of double piles, lined withinwith cables, and without with turf.From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all mygoods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it rainedexceedingly hard.The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun,to seek for some food, and discover the country; when I killed ashe-goat, and her kid followed me home, which I afterwards killedalso, because it would not feed.NOVEMBER 1. - I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for thefirst night; making it as large as I could, with stakes driven into swing my hammock upon.NOV. 2. - I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces oftimber which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence round me,a little within the place I had marked out for my fortification.NOV. 3. - I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks,which were very good food. In the afternoon went to work to makeme a table.NOV. 4. - This morning I began to order my times of work, of goingout with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion - viz. everymorning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it didnot rain; then employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock;then eat what I had to live on; and from twelve to two I lay downto sleep, the weather being excessively hot; and then, in theevening, to work again. The working part of this day and of thenext were wholly employed in making my table, for I was yet but avery sorry workman, though time and necessity made me a completenatural mechanic soon after, as I believe they would do any oneelse.NOV. 5. - This day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and killed awild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing;every creature that I killed I took of the skins and preservedthem. Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls,which I did not understand; but was surprised, and almostfrightened, with two or three seals, which, while I was gazing at,not well knowing what they were, got into the sea, and escaped mefor that time.NOV. 6. - After my morning walk I went to work with my table again,and finished it, though not to my liking; nor was it long before Ilearned to mend it.NOV. 7. - Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, 8th,9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was Sunday) I tookwholly up to make me a chair, and with much ado brought it to atolerable shape, but never to please me; and even in the making Ipulled it in pieces several times.NOTE. - I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my markfor them on my post, I forgot which was which.NOV. 13. - This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, andcooled the earth; but it was accompanied with terrible thunder andlightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder.As soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock of powderinto as many little parcels as possible, that it might not be indanger.NOV. 14, 15, 16. - These three days I spent in making little squarechests, or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two pounds atmost, of powder; and so, putting the powder in, I stowed it inplaces as secure and remote from one another as possible. On oneof these three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat, butI knew not what to call it.NOV. 17. - This day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock, tomake room for my further conveniency.NOTE. - Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work - viz. apickaxe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or basket; so I desisted frommy work, and began to consider how to supply that want, and make mesome tools. As for the pickaxe, I made use of the iron crows,which were proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing was ashovel or spade; this was so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, Icould do nothing effectually without it; but what kind of one tomake I knew not.NOV. 18. - The next day, in searching the woods, I found a tree ofthat wood, or like it, which in the Brazils they call the iron-tree, for its exceeding hardness. Of this, with great labour, andalmost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home, too,with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. The excessivehardness of the wood, and my having no other way, made me a longwhile upon this machine, for I worked it effectually by little andlittle into the form of a shovel or spade; the handle exactlyshaped like ours in England, only that the board part having noiron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long; however,it served well enough for the uses which I had occasion to put itto; but never was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, orso long in making.I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow. Abasket I could not make by any means, having no such things astwigs that would bend to make wicker-ware - at least, none yetfound out; and as to a wheelbarrow, I fancied I could make all butthe wheel; but that I had no notion of; neither did I know how togo about it; besides, I had no possible way to make the irongudgeons for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in; so I gaveit over, and so, for carrying away the earth which I dug out of thecave, I made me a thing like a hod which the labourers carry mortarin when they serve the bricklayers. This was not so difficult tome as the making the shovel: and yet this and the shovel, and theattempt which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up noless than four days - I mean always excepting my morning walk withmy gun, which I seldom failed, and very seldom failed also bringinghome something fit to eat.NOV. 23. - My other work having now stood still, because of mymaking these tools, when they were finished I went on, and workingevery day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen daysentirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it might hold mygoods commodiously.NOTE. - During all this time I worked to make this room or cavespacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, akitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. As for my lodging, I kept tothe tent; except that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, itrained so hard that I could not keep myself dry, which caused meafterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles, inthe form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and load them withflags and large leaves of trees, like a thatch.DECEMBER 10. - I began now to think my cave or vault finished, whenon a sudden (it seems I had made it too large) a great quantity ofearth fell down from the top on one side; so much that, in short,it frighted me, and not without reason, too, for if I had beenunder it, I had never wanted a gravedigger. I had now a great dealof work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to carry out;and, which was of more importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, sothat I might be sure no more would come down.DEC. 11. - This day I went to work with it accordingly, and got twoshores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces ofboards across over each post; this I finished the next day; andsetting more posts up with boards, in about a week more I had theroof secured, and the posts, standing in rows, served me forpartitions to part off the house.DEC. 17. - From this day to the 20th I placed shelves, and knockedup nails on the posts, to hang everything up that could be hung up;and now I began to be in some order within doors.DEC. 20. - Now I carried everything into the cave, and began tofurnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards like a dresser,to order my victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce withme; also, I made me another table.DEC. 24. - Much rain all night and all day. No stirring out.DEC. 25. - Rain all day.DEC. 26. - No rain, and the earth much cooler than before, andpleasanter.DEC. 27. - Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that I caughtit and led it home in a string; when I had it at home, I bound andsplintered up its leg, which was broke.N.B. - I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew welland as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so long, it grew tame,and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away.This was the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding upsome tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder and shotwas all spent.DEC. 28,29,30,31. - Great heats, and no breeze, so that there wasno stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food; this time Ispent in putting all my things in order within doors.JANUARY 1. - Very hot still: but I went abroad early and late withmy gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This evening,going farther into the valleys which lay towards the centre of theisland, I found there were plenty of goats, though exceedingly shy,and hard to come at; however, I resolved to try if I could notbring my dog to hunt them down.JAN. 2. - Accordingly, the next day I went out with my dog, and sethim upon the goats, but I was mistaken, for they all faced aboutupon the dog, and he knew his danger too well, for he would notcome near them.JAN. 3. - I began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous ofmy being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very thick andstrong.N.B. - This wall being described before, I purposely omit what wassaid in the journal; it is sufficient to observe, that I was noless time than from the 2nd of January to the 14th of Aprilworking, finishing, and perfecting this wall, though it was no morethan about twenty-four yards in length, being a half-circle fromone place in the rock to another place, about eight yards from it,the door of the cave being in the centre behind it.All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me many days,nay, sometimes weeks together; but I thought I should never beperfectly secure till this wall was finished; and it is scarcecredible what inexpressible labour everything was done with,especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving theminto the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to havedone.When this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced, with aturf wall raised up close to it, I perceived myself that if anypeople were to come on shore there, they would not perceiveanything like a habitation; and it was very well I did so, as maybe observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every daywhen the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries in thesewalks of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I founda kind of wild pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree,but rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and takingsome young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so;but when they grew older they flew away, which perhaps was at firstfor want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give them; however,I frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, whichwere very good meat. And now, in the managing my householdaffairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I thought atfirst it was impossible for me to make; as, indeed, with some ofthem it was: for instance, I could never make a cask to be hooped.I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before; but I couldnever arrive at the capacity of making one by them, though I spentmany weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join thestaves so true to one another as to make them hold water; so I gavethat also over. In the next place, I was at a great loss forcandles; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generallyby seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered thelump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African adventure;but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that when Ihad killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little dish madeof clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of someoakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not aclear, steady light, like a candle. In the middle of all mylabours it happened that, rummaging my things, I found a little bagwhich, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for thefeeding of poultry - not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose,when the ship came from Lisbon. The little remainder of corn thathad been in the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothingin the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bagfor some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I dividedit for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husksof corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock.It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that Ithrew this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so much asremembering that I had thrown anything there, when, about a monthafter, or thereabouts, I saw some few stalks of something greenshooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be some plant Ihad not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when,after a little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears comeout, which were perfect green barley, of the same kind as ourEuropean - nay, as our English barley.It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of mythoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted upon no religiousfoundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in myhead, nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallenme otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleasesGod, without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence inthese things, or His order in governing events for the world. Butafter I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was notproper for corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there,it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest that God hadmiraculously caused His grain to grow without any help of seedsown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on thatwild, miserable place.This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes,and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature shouldhappen upon my account; and this was the more strange to me,because I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice,and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa when I wasashore there.I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for mysupport, but not doubting that there was more in the place, I wentall over that part of the island, where I had been before, peeringin every corner, and under every rock, to see for more of it, but Icould not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that Ishook a bag of chickens' meat out in that place; and then thewonder began to cease; and I must confess my religious thankfulnessto God's providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering thatall this was nothing but what was common; though I ought to havebeen as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as ifit had been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence tome, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of cornshould remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest,as if it had been dropped from heaven; as also, that I should throwit out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of ahigh rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown itanywhere else at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in theirseason, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn,I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have somequantity sufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not tillthe fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of thiscorn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall sayafterwards, in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the firstseason by not observing the proper time; for I sowed it just beforethe dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as itwould have done; of which in its place.Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalksof rice, which I preserved with the same care and for the same use,or to the same purpose - to make me bread, or rather food; for Ifound ways to cook it without baking, though I did that also aftersome time.But to return to my Journal.I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my walldone; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go intoit, not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there mightbe no sign on the outside of my habitation.APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to thetop, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside.This was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough,and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could firstmount my wall.The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had allmy labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The case wasthus: As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at theentrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a mostdreadful, surprising thing indeed; for all on a sudden I found theearth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from theedge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set up inthe cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily scared; butthought nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking thatthe top of my cave was fallen in, as some of it had done before:and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my ladder,and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall forfear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll downupon me. I had no sooner stepped do ground, than I plainly saw itwas a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook threetimes at about eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks aswould have overturned the strongest building that could be supposedto have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rockwhich stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down withsuch a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceivedalso the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believethe shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt thelike, nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like onedead or stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomachsick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the fallingof the rock awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from thestupefied condition I was in, filled me with horror; and I thoughtof nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all myhousehold goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my verysoul within me a second time.After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, Ibegan to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over mywall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon theground greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do.All this while I had not the least serious religious thought;nothing but the common "Lord have mercy upon me!" and when it wasover that went away too.While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as ifit would rain. Soon after that the wind arose by little andlittle, so that in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadfulhurricane; the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam andfroth; the shore was covered with the breach of the water, thetrees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was. Thisheld about three hours, and then began to abate; and in two hoursmore it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard. All thiswhile I sat upon the ground very much terrified and dejected; whenon a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rainbeing the consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself wasspent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With thisthought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping topersuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain wasso violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and Iwas forced to go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy,for fear it should fall on my head. This violent rain forced me toa new work - viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, likea sink, to let the water go out, which would else have flooded mycave. After I had been in my cave for some time, and found stillno more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be morecomposed. And now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted itvery much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum;which, however, I did then and always very sparingly, knowing Icould have no more when that was gone. It continued raining allthat night and great part of the next day, so that I could not stirabroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think of what Ihad best do; concluding that if the island was subject to theseearthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I mustconsider of building a little hut in an open place which I mightsurround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself securefrom wild beasts or men; for I concluded, if I stayed where I was,I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the placewhere it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of thehill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fallupon my tent; and I spent the two next days, being the 19th and20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept inquiet; and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fencewas almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about, and saw howeverything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, andhow safe from danger, it made me very loath to remove. In themeantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal oftime for me to do this, and that I must be contented to venturewhere I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had securedit so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I composedmyself for a time, and resolved that I would go to work with allspeed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c., in a circle,as before, and set my tent up in it when it was finished; but thatI would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, and fitto remove. This was the 21st.APRIL 22. - The next morning I begin to consider of means to putthis resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about mytools. I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for wecarried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with muchchopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full ofnotches, and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turnit and grind my tools too. This cost me as much thought as astatesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or ajudge upon the life and death of a man. At length I contrived awheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might haveboth my hands at liberty. NOTE. - I had never seen any such thingin England, or at least, not to take notice how it was done, thoughsince I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, mygrindstone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a fullweek's work to bring it to perfection.APRIL 28, 29. - These two whole days I took up in grinding mytools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.APRIL 30. - Having perceived my bread had been low a great while,now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake aday, which made my heart very heavy.MAY 1. - In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tidebeing low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary,and it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a smallbarrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, whichwere driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards thewreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the waterthan it used to do. I examined the barrel which was driven onshore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it hadtaken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone; however,I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon thesands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look formore.