everything about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it
should be my lot to stay on the island.
CHAPTER VIII . SURVEYS HIS POSITION
Robinson Crusoe
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey; during which most of the time
was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and
to be well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little
circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food; accordingly I went, and found it where I
left it, for indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees,
and branches of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to
lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a
dog: and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it became from that
time one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same
solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there two
years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there, I spent the whole day in
humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was
attended with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty
thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary
condition than I should have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world; that He could
fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human society, by His presence and
the communications of His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon
His providence here, and hope for His eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable
circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days; and now I changed
both my sorrows and my joys; my very desires altered, my affections changed their gusts, and my delights
were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or, indeed, for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my
condition would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the
woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and
bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatest composure
of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands and weep like a child.
Sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look
upon the ground for an hour or two together; and this was still worse to me, for if I could burst out into tears,
or vent myself by words, it would go off, and the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts: I daily read the word of God, and applied all the
comforts of it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I will
never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Immediately it occurred that these words were to me; why else
should they be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one
forsaken of God and man? "Well, then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it
be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world,
and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the loss?"
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for me to be more happy in this
forsaken, solitary condition than it was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the
world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place. I know not what
it was, but something shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words. "How canst thou
become such a hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend to be thankful for a condition which, however
thou mayest endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?" So I
stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God
for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my life, and to mourn
CHAPTER VIII . SURVEYS HIS POSITION
Robinson Crusoe
for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God
for directing my friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods, and for
assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and though I have not given the reader the
trouble of so particular an account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed that I
was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time according to the several daily employments that
were before me, such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart
some time for thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up
three hours in every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving, and cooking
what I had killed or caught for my supply; these took up great part of the day. Also, it is to be considered, that
in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so
that about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in, with this exception, that
sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with
my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the
many hours which, for want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out of my time.
For example, I was full two and forty days in making a board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave;
whereas, two sawyers, with their tools and a saw.pit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half
a day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down, because my board was to be a broad
one. This tree I was three days in cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log
or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced both the sides of it into chips till it
began to be light enough to move; then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board from
end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the other side til I brought the plank to be about three inches
thick, and smooth on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work; but
labour and patience carried me through that, and many other things. I only observe this in particular, to show
the reason why so much of my time went away with so little work . viz. that what might be a little to be done
with help and tools, was a vast labour and required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. But
notwithstanding this, with patience and labour I got through everything that my circumstances made
necessary to me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of barley and rice. The ground I
had manured and dug up for them was not great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the
quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season. But now my crop promised
very well, when on a sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which
it was scarcely possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and wild creatures which I called hares, who,
tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so close, that it
could get no time to shoot up into stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a hedge; which I did with a great deal of
toil, and the more, because it required speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to my crop, I
got it totally well fenced in about three weeks' time; and shooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I set
my dog to guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night
long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to
ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me
now, when it was in the ear; for, going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop
CHAPTER VIII . SURVEYS HIS POSITION
Robinson Crusoe
surrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who stood, as it were, watching till I should be gone. I
immediately let fly among them, for I always had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot, but there rose up a
little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they would devour all my hopes; that I should be
starved, and never be able to raise a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell; however, I resolved not to lose
my corn, if possible, though I should watch it night and day. In the first place, I went among it to see what
damage was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that as it was yet too green for
them, the loss was not so great but that the remainder was likely to be a good crop if it could be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees
about me, as if they only waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as I walked off, as
if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was
so provoked, that I could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grain that they ate
now was, as it might be said, a peck.loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired again,
and killed three of them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and served them as we serve
notorious thieves in England . hanged them in chains, for a terror to of them. It is impossible to imagine that
this should have such an effect as it had, for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, but, in short, they
forsook all that part of the island, and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung
there. This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter end of December, which was our second
harvest of the year, I reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and all I could do was to make one, as well as I
could, out of one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship. However, as
my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to cut it down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I cut
nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and so rubbed it out with my
hands; and at the end of all my harvesting, I found that out of my half.peck of seed I had near two bushels of
rice, and about two bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that, in time, it would please God to supply
me with bread. And yet here I was perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal of my corn,
or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if how to make it,
yet I knew not how to bake it. These things being added to my desire of having a good quantity for store, and
to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the
next season; and in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work
of providing myself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. I believe few people have thought much upon the
strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and
finishing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my daily discouragement; and was made more
sensible of it every hour, even after I had got the first handful of seed.corn, which, as I have said, came up
unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth . no spade or shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making me
a wooden spade, as I observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost me a
great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out soon, but made my work the harder,
and made it be performed much worse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out with
patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was
forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called,
CHAPTER VIII . SURVEYS HIS POSITION
Robinson Crusoe
rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing, and grown, I have observed already how many things I
wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, and save it.
