THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE
PART 29
Having thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty much of my five runagate Englishmen, I must say something of the Spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable enough.
I had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances when they were among the savages; they told me readily, that they had no instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that country; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of people; that if means had been put into their hands, they had yet so abandoned themselves to despair, and so sunk under the weight of their misfortunes, that they thought of nothing but starving. One of them, a grave and very sensible man, told me he was convinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the part of wise men to give up themselves to their misery, but always to take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well for present support, as for future deliverance; he told me that grief was the most senseless insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded only things past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or to be remedied, but had no view to things to come, and had no share in any thing that looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which though I cannot repeat in just the same words that he spoke it, yet I remember I made it into an English proverb of my own, thus;
In trouble to be
troubled,
Is to have your trouble doubled.
He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements I had made in my solitude; my unwearied application, as he called it, and how I had made a condition, which in its circumstances was at first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs was, even now when they were all together. He told me it was remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presence of mind in their distress than any people that ever he met with; that their unhappy nation, and the Portuguese, were the worst men in the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers, after common efforts are over, was always to despair, lie down under it and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape.
I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or of present sustenance, till they could provide it; that it is true, I had this disadvantage and discomfort, that I was alone; but then the supplies I had providentially thrown into my hands, by the unexpected driving of the ship on shore, was such a help as would have encouraged any creature in the world to have applied himself as I had done. "Seignior," says the Spaniard, "had we poor Spaniards been in your case we should never have gotten half those things out of the ship as you did." "Nay," says he, "we should never have found means to have gotten a raft to carry them, or to have gotten a raft on shore without boat or sail; and how much less should we have done," said he, "if any of us had been alone!" Well, I desired him to abate his compliment, and go on with the history of their coming on shore, where they landed. He told me they unhappily landed at a place where there were people without provisions; whereas, had they had the common sense to have put off to sea again, and gone to another island a little farther, they had found provisions though without people; there being an island that way, as they had been told, where there were provisions though no people; that is to say, that the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there, and filled the island with goats and hogs at several times, where they have bred in such multitudes, and where turtle and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have been in no want of flesh though they had found no bread; whereas here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they understood not, and which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave them sparingly enough, and who could treat them no better unless they would turn cannibals, and eat men's flesh, which was the great dainty of the country.
They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilize the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in the ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted it upon them as unjust, that they, who came thither for assistance and support, should attempt to set up for instructors of those that gave them bread; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for the instructors of others but those who could live without them.
They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven to; how sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived more indolent, and for that reason were less supplied with the necessaries of life than they had reason to believe others were in the same part of the world; and yet they found that these savages were less ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies of food.
Also they added, that they could not but see with what demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of God directs the event of things in the world, which they said appeared in their circumstances; for if, pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barrenness of the country where they were, they had searched after a better place to live in, they had then been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by my means.
Then they gave me an account how the savages whom they lived among expected them to go out with them into their wars; and it was true, that as they had fire-arms with them, had they not had the disaster to lose their ammunition, they should not have been serviceable only to their friends, but have made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies; but being without powder and shot, and in a condition that they could not in reason deny to go out with their landlords to their wars; when they came in the field of battle they were in a worse condition than the savages themselves, for they neither had bows nor arrows, nor could they use those the savages gave them, so that they could do nothing but stand still and be wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth of their enemy; and then indeed the three halberts they had were of use to them, and they would often drive a whole little army before them with those halberts and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets: but that for all this, they were sometimes surrounded with multitudes, and in great danger from their arrows; till at last they found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which they covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered them from the arrows of the savages; that notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of them knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner, that is to say, the Spaniard whom I had relieved; that at first they thought he had been killed, but when afterwards they heard he was taken prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him.
They told me, that when they were so knocked down, the rest of their company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were come to themselves, all but he who they thought had been dead; and then they made their way with their halberts and pieces, standing close together in a line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating down all that came in their way, got the victory over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend; whom the other party, finding him alive, carried off with some others, as I gave an account in my former.
They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind, viz. by wild men; and yet how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave them of his errand, and that there was a Christian in a place near, much more one that was able, and had humanity enough to contribute to their deliverance.
They described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things they had not seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossed it, and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other things I had sent for their supply. And, after all, they would have told me something of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots to carry them away to the person and place from whence all these new comforts came; but they told me it was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive joy driving them to unbecoming extravagancies, they had no way to describe them but by telling me that they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passion suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it worked one way, and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise of joy, would burst out into tears; others be half mad, and others immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and called to my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor people's ecstasy when I took them up at sea, after their ship was on fire; the mate of the ship's joy, when he found himself delivered in the place where he expected to perish; and my own joy, when after twenty-eight years captivity I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country. All these things made me more sensible of the relation of these poor men, and more affected with it.
Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I must relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the condition in which I left them. It was their opinion, and mine too, that they would be troubled no more with the savages; or that, if they were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before; so that they had no concern about that. Then I entered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard whom I called governor, about their stay in the island; for as I was not come to carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off some and leave others, who perhaps would be unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished.
On the other hand I told them, I came to establish them there, not to remove them; and then I let them know that I had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I had been at a great charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and that I had such particular persons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to, being artificers, to assist them in those things in which at present they were to seek.
They were all together when I talked thus to them; and before I delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one by one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had been among them, and could shake hands with one another, and engage in a strict friendship and union of interest, so that there might be no more misunderstandings or jealousies.
William Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said, they had met with afflictions enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends: that for his part he would live and die with them; and was so far from designing any thing against the Spaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what his own bad humour made necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps much worse, in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if I desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to them; and was very willing and desirous of living on terms of entire friendship and union with them; and would do any thing that lay in his power, to convince them of it: and as for going to England, he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years.
The Spaniards said, they had indeed at first disarmed and excluded William Atkins and his two countrymen, for their ill conduct, as they had let me know; and they appealed to me for the necessity they were under to do so; but that William Atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with the savages, and on several occasions since, and had shewed himself so faithful to, and concerned for the general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms, and supplied with necessaries, as any of them; and that they had testified their satisfaction in him, by committing the command to him, next to the governor himself; and as they had an entire confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to be valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never have any interest separate from one another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the next day to dine all together, and indeed we made a splendid feast. I caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. We brought on shore six pieces of good beef, and four pieces of pork, out of the ship's provision, with our punch-bowl, and materials to fill it; and, in particular, I gave them ten bottles of French claret, and ten bottles of English beer, things that neither the Spaniards nor the Englishmen had tasted for many years; and which it may be supposed they were exceeding glad of.
The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board our ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with their salt meal from on board.
After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no dispute about dividing, I shewed them that there was sufficient for them all; and desired that they might all take an equal quantity of the goods that were for wearing; that is to say, equal when made up. As first, I distributed linen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts; and, at the Spaniards' request, afterwards made them up six; these were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what, as I may say, they had long since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them.
I allotted the thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to make every one a light coat like a frock, which I judged fittest for the heat of the season, cool and loose; and ordered, that whenever they decayed, they should make more, as they thought fit. The like for pumps, shoes, stockings, and hats, &c.
I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat upon the countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care I had taken of them, and how well I had furnished them; they told me I was a father to them; and that having such a correspondent as I was, in so remote a part of the world, it would make them forget that they were left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the place without my consent.
Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me, particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them most necessary people; but above all, my general artificer, than whom they could not name any thing that was more needful to them; and the tailor, to shew his concern for them, went to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did; and, which was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their husbands and for all the rest.
As for the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were, for they took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things, and made them clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and every thing they wanted of that kind.
But to let them see how nature made artificers at first, I carried the carpenters to see William Atkins's basket house, as I called it, and they both owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, nor any thing so regular and so handily built, at least of its kind; and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while, turning about to me, "I am sure," says he, "that man has no need of us; you need do nothing but give him tools."
Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows or ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broadaxe, and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any were broken, or worn out, they should be supplied, without grudging, out of the general stores that I left behind.
Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of tools and iron-work, they had without tale as they required; for no man would care to take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil them on any account whatever. And for the use of the smith I left two tons of unwrought iron for a supply.
My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them, was such, even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now they could march, as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if there was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if they had but some little advantages of situation, which also they could not miss of if they had occasion.
I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved to death, and the maid also: she was a sober, well-educated, religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively, that every one gave her a good word. She had, indeed, an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in the ship but herself; but she bore it with patience. After a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in so fine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in the East Indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage; I say, considering all this, both of them came to me, and desired I would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among my family, as they called it.
I agreed to it readily, and they had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisaded like Atkins's, and adjoining to his plantation. Their tents were contrived so, that they had each of them a room, a part to lodge in, and a middle tent, like a great storehouse, to lay all their goods in, and to eat and drink in. And now the other two Englishmen moved their habitation to the same place, and so the island was divided into three colonies, and no more; viz. the Spaniards, with old Friday, and the first servants, at my old habitation under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the outside of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. Never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, I believe, in any part of the world; for I verily believe a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and if they had not known there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not have found it; for the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew so fast matted into one another, that nothing but cutting them down first, could discover the place, except the two narrow entrances where they went in and out, could be found, which was not very easy. One of them was just down at the water's edge, on the side of the creek; and it was afterwards above two hundred yards to the place; and the other was up the ladder at twice, as I have already formerly described it; and they had a large wood, thick planted, also on the top of the hill, which contained above an acre, which grew apace, and covered the place from all discovery there, with only one narrow place between two trees, not easy to be discovered, to enter on that side.
The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were four families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their wives and children; three savages that were slaves; the widow and children of the Englishman that was killed; the young man and the maid; and by the way, we made a wife of her also before we went away. There were also the two carpenters and the tailor, whom I brought with me for them; also the smith, who was a very necessary man to them, especially as the gunsmith, to take care of their arms; and my other man, whom I called Jack of all Trades, who was himself as good almost as twenty men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow; and before I went away we married him to the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship, whom I mentioned before.
To be continued
