and it was very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.
During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when the rain permitted me, and made
frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found a 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 taking some young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew
older they flew away, which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give them;
however, I frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which were very good meat. And now, in
the managing my household affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I thought at first it was
impossible for me to make; as, indeed, with some of them 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 could never arrive at the capacity of
making one by them, though I spent many weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join the staves
so true to one another as to make them hold water; so I gave that also over. In the next place, I was at a great
loss for candles; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o'clock, I was obliged to
go to bed. I remembered the lump 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 I had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little
dish made of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made me a lamp; and
this gave me light, though not a clear, steady light, like a candle. In the middle of all my labours it happened
that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the
feeding of poultry . not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. The little
remainder of corn that had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but
husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag for some other use (I think it was to put powder in, when I
divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks of 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 I threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not
so much as remembering that I had thrown anything there, when, about a month after, or thereabouts, I saw
some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had
not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw about ten or
twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley, of the same kind as our European . nay, as our
English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto
acted upon no religious foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my head, nor had
entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what
pleases God, without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these things, or His order in
governing events for the world. But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper
for corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest that
God had miraculously caused His grain to grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed
purely for my sustenance on that wild, miserable place.
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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 should happen 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 was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my support, but not doubting that there was
more in the place, I went all over that part of the island, where I had been before, peering in every corner, and
under every rock, to see for more of it, but I could not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that I shook
a bag of chickens' meat out in that place; and then the wonder began to cease; and I must confess my
religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing
but what was common; though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as
if it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence to me, that should order or appoint that ten
or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been
dropped from heaven; as also, that I should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of
a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time, it had been burnt
up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their season, which was about the end of June; and,
laying up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to
supply me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn
to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the first
season by not observing the proper time; for I sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came up at
all, at least not as it would have done; of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of 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 I found ways to cook it
without baking, though I did that also after some time.
But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done; and the 14th of April I closed it up,
contriving to go into it, not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside
of my habitation.
APRIL 16. . I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the top, 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 first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself
killed. The case was thus: As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at the entrance into my cave, I was
terribly frighted with a most dreadful, surprising thing indeed; for all on a sudden I found the earth come
crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I
had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily scared; but thought nothing of what was
really the cause, only thinking that the 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 for fear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll down upon me. I had no sooner stepped
do ground, than I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three times at about
eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks as would have overturned the strongest building that could be
supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock which stood about half a mile from
me next the sea fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceived also the very
sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the
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island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had,
that I was like one dead or stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was
tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from the
stupefied condition I was in, filled me with horror; and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my
tent and all my household goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my very soul within me a second
time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I began to take courage; and yet I had not
heart enough to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground 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 was over that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as if it would rain. Soon after that the wind arose
by little and little, so that in less than half.an.hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane; the sea was all on a
sudden covered over with foam and froth; the shore was covered with the breach of the water, the trees were
torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was. This held about three hours, and then began to abate; and in
two hours more it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard. All this while I sat upon the ground very much
terrified and dejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rain being the
consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and I might venture into my cave
again. With this thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping to persuade me, I went in and
sat down in my tent. But the rain was so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was
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 to a new work . viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the
water go out, which would else have flooded my cave. After I had been in my cave for some time, and found
still no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be more composed. And now, to support my spirits,
which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum; which, however, I
did then and always very sparingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone. It continued raining
all that night and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but my mind being more
composed, I began to think of what I had best do; concluding that if the island was subject to these
earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I must consider of building a little hut in an open
place which I might surround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure from 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 place where it stood, which was just under the
hanging precipice of the hill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent; and I
spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my
habitation. The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in quiet; and yet the apprehension
of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about, and saw how
everything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me very
loath to remove. In the meantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this,
and that I must be contented to venture where I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it
so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself for a time, and resolved that I would go to
work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, in a circle, as before, and set my tent up in it
when it was finished; but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, and fit to remove. This
was the 21st.
APRIL 22. . The next morning I begin to consider of means to put this resolve into execution; but I was at a
great loss about my tools. I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for
traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches,
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Robinson Crusoe
and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too. This cost me as much
thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death
of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might have both my hands
at liberty. NOTE. . I had never seen any such thing in England, or at least, not to take notice how it was
done, though since I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone was very large and
heavy. This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection.
APRIL 28, 29. . These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, 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 a day, which made my heart very heavy.
MAY 1. . In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tide being 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 small barrel, and two or three
pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the
wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel which
