Part 4 (1/2)

BUT first I was to prepare round Before I did this, I had a week's work at least to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to ith it However, I got through that, and sowed round, as near my house as I could find thee, the stakes of which were all cut off that hich I had set before, and kneould grow; so that, in a year's tie, that would want but little repair This work did not take reat part of that tio abroad Within-doors, that is when it rained and I could not go out, I found e, that all the while I was at work I divertedhiht him to know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, ”Poll,” which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own This, therefore, was not my work, but an assistance to reat e studied to make, by some means or other, some earthen vessels, which, indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew not where to co the heat of the clihtdried in the sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold anything that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in the preparing corn, , I resolved to e as I could, and fit only to stand like jars, to hold what should be put into theh at me, to tell how many aays I took to raise this paste; what odd, s I made; howstiff enough to bear its oeight; howset out too hastily; and how , as well before as after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find the clay - to dig it, to te it holy things (I cannot call them jars) in about two months' labour

However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lifted thereat wicker baskets, which I had ht not break; and as between the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw; and these two pots being to stand always dry I thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the h I e pots, yet I s with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun baked them quite hard

But all this would not answer et an earthen pot to hold as liquid, and bear the fire, which none of these could do It happened after so my meat, when I went to put it out after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as a tile I was agreeably surprised to see it, and said to ht be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken

This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn some pots I had no notion of a kiln, such as the potters burn in, or of glazing theh I had soe pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one upon another, and placed reat heap of embers under them I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all When I saw them clear red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one of theh it did not crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was mixed with the clay lass if I had gone on; so I slacked an to abate of the red colour; and watching theht not let the fire abate too fast, in the ood (I will not say handsome) pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired, and one of the of the sand

After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort of earthenware for my use; but I must needs say as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any onethem but as the children make dirt pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learned to raise paste

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold before I set one on the fire again with some water in it to boil me some meat, which it did adood broth, though I wanted oatood as I would have had it been

My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat soht of arriving at that perfection of art with one pair of hands To supply this want, I was at a great loss; for, of all the trades in the world, I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it with I spent h to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and could find none at all, except as in the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy, cruht of a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it with sand So, after a great deal of tiave it over, and resolved to look out for a great block of hard wood, which I found, indeed, th to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet, and then with the help of fire and infinite labour, made a hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brazil reat heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and laid by against I had rind, or rather pound into meal to make bread

My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk; without which I did not see it possible I could have any bread This was aeven to think on, for to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it - I h And here I was at a full stop for many months; nor did I really knohat to do Linen I had none left but as oat's hair, but neither kneeave it or spin it; and had I kno, here were no tools to work it with All the remedy that I found for this was, that at last I did re the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the shi+p, some neckcloths of calico or muslin; and with soh for the work; and thus I made shi+ft for some years: how I did afterwards, I shall show in its place

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for first, I had no yeast As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern reat pain At length I found out an experiment for that also, which was this: I made some earthen-vessels very broad but not deep, that is to say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep These I burned in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid thereat fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with so also; but I should not call them square

When the fireas burned pretty much into embers or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there I let the away all the e down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked ood pastrycook into the bargain; for I s of the rice; but Ito put into theoats

It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed that in the intervals of these things I had e; for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it hoe baskets, till I had time to rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash it with

And now, indeed, , I really wanted to build er; I wanted a place to lay it up in, for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice as in to use it freely; for reat while; also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once a year

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were much more than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide , you hts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side of the island; and I was not without secret wishes that I were on shore there, fancying that, seeing the ht find some way or other to convey myself further, and perhaps at last find some means of escape

But all this while I , and how I es, and perhaps such as I ers of Africa: that if I once came in their power, I should run a hazard ofkilled, and perhaps of being eaten; for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coast were cannibals or man-eaters, and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far fro they were not cannibals, yet they ht kill me, as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even when they had been ten or twenty together - much more I, that was but one, and could s, I say, which I ought to have considered well; and did coave htily upon the thought of getting over to the shore

Noished for -boat with shoulder-of- mutton sail, hich I sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa; but this was in vain: then I thought I would go and look at our shi+p's boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way, in the storm, ere first cast away She lay almost where she did at first, but not quite; and was turned, by the force of the waves and the winds, alh sand, but no water about her If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to have launched her into the water, the boat would have done well enough, and I h; but I ht have foreseen that I could no ht upon her bottom than I could remove the island; however, I went to the woods, and cut levers and rollers, and brought the to ht repair the daood boat, and I o to sea in her very easily

I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last finding it ith, I fell to digging away the sand, to under pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall

But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to get under it, much less to ive it over; and yet, though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as the th putwhether it was not possible to ua, such as the natives of those cliht say, without hands, of the trunk of a great tree This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleasedit, and with roes or Indians; but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians did - viz want of hands to move it, when it was made, into the water - a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them; for as it to me, if when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods, and with much trouble cut it down, if I had been able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat of it - if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I found it, and not be able to launch it into the water?

One would have thought I could not have had the least reflection uponthis boat, but I should have iet it into the sea; but e over the sea in it, that I never once considered how I should get it off the land: and it was really, in its own nature, uide it over forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did who had any of his senses awake I pleasedwhether I was ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop to ave myself - ”Let et it along when it is done”

This was a erness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went I felled a cedar-tree, and I questionof the Temple of Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet; after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree; I enty days hacking and hewing at it at the botto the branches and li head cut off, which I hacked and hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressible labour; after this, it cost me alike the bottoht to do It cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it; this I did, indeed, without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till I had brought it to be a very handsoh to have carried six-and-twenty h to have carried h this work I was extreer than ever I saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life Many a weary stroke it had cost, you otten it into the water, I e, and the most unlikely to be perforet it into the water failed h they cost me infinite labour too It lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek Well, to take away this discourage into the surface of the earth, and so ious deal of pains (but who grudge pains who have their deliverance in view?); but when this orked through, and this difficulty ed, it was still much the same, for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat Then I round, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water Well, I began this work; and when I began to enter upon it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, I found that, by the nu none but my own, it one through with it; for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it h with great reluctancy, I gave this atterieved inning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it

In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much comfort as ever before; for, by a constant study and serious application to the Word of God, and by the assistance of His grace, I gained a different knowledge fros I looked now upon the world as a thing re to do with, no expectations fro indeed to do with it, nor was ever likely to have, so I thought it looked, as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter - viz as a place I had lived in, but was coht I say, as Father Abrahaulf fixed”

In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, nor the pride of life I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying; I was lord of the wholeor emperor over the whole country which I had possession of: there were no rivals; I had no conty or cos of corn, but I had no use for it; so I let as little grow as I thought enough for h, but now and then one was as h to have built a fleet of shi+ps; and I had grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when it had been built

But all I could h to eat and supply my wants, and as all the rest tomust eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could eat, itto rot on the ground; I could make no more use of them but for fuel, and that I had no occasion for but to dress s dictated to s of this world are no farther good to us than they are for our use; and that, whatever we ive others, we enjoy just asmiser in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely more than I knehat to do with I had no roos which I had not, and they were but trifles, though, indeed, of great use to old as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling Alas! there the sorry, useless stuff lay; I had no ht with ross of tobacco-pipes; or for a hand-iven it all for a sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink As it was, I had not the least advantage by it or benefit frorew mouldy with the damp of the cave in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same case - they had been of no manner of value to ht my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body I frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness I learned to look ht side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in iven theiven them All our discontents about ant appeared tofrom the want of thankfulness for e have

Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition hat I at first expected it would be; nay, hat it would certainly have been, if the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the shi+p to be cast up nearer to the shore, where I not only could coot out of her to the shore, for my relief and comfort; without which, I had wanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, and gunpowder and shot for getting my food

I spent whole hours, Ito myself, in the ot nothing out of the shi+p How I could not have so ot any food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it was long before I found any of them, I must have perished first; that I should have lived, if I had not perished, like a oat or a fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or open it, or part the flesh fronaith my teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast

These reflections oodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardshi+ps and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, ”Is any affliction like mine?” Let them consider how ht have been, if Providence had thought fit

I had another reflection, which assistedmy present situation hat I had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God I had been well instructed by father andto ious awe of God into my mind, a sense ofrequired oflife, which of all lives is the h His terrors are always before the life, and into seafaring coion which I had entertained was laughed out of ers, and the views of death, which grew habitual toabsence fro but as like ood or tended towards it

So void was I of everything that was good, or the least sense of what I was, or was to be, that, in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed - such as ueseplanted so well in the Brazils; land, and the like - I never had once the words ”Thank God!” so reatest distress had I so ht to pray to Him, or so much as to say, ”Lord, have mercy upon me!” no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I have already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; and when I looked about me, and considered what particular providences had attendedinto this place, and how God had dealt bountifully with me - had not only punished me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for reat hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercy in store for me

With these reflections I worked nation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for ht not to co I had not the due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to have expected in that place; that I ought never ive daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought; that I ought to consider I had been fed even by aElijah by ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world where I could have been cast e; a place where, as I had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten ht feed on to es to murder and devour me In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life ofto make it a life of cooodness to me, and care over me in this condition, be my daily consolation; and after I did s, I went away, and was no s which I had brought on shore for one, or very much wasted and near spent

My ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but a very little, which I eked out ater, a little and a little, till it was so pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper As long as it lasted I made use of it to minute down the days of thehappened toup tie concurrence of days in the various providences which befell me, and which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I reat deal of curiosity

First, I had observed that the same day that I broke away froo to sea, the same day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man-of-war, and made a slave; the same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck of that shi+p in Yarmouth Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made my escape from Sallee in a boat; the same day of the year I was born on - viz the 30th of September, that same day I had my life so miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast on shore in this island; so that an both on a day

The next thing towasted was that of ht out of the shi+p; this I had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a-day for above a year; and yet I was quite without bread for near a year before I got any corn of reat reason I had to be thankful that I had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next to an to decay; as to linen, I had had none a good while, except some chequered shi+rts which I found in the chests of the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved; because many times I could bear no other clothes on but a shi+rt; and it was a very great help toall the men's clothes of the shi+p, almost three dozen of shi+rts There were also, indeed, several thick watch-coats of the seamen's which were left, but they were too hot to wear; and though it is true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no need of clothes, yet I could not go quite naked - no, though I had been inclined to it, which I was not - nor could I abide the thought of it, though I was alone The reason why I could not go naked was, I could not bear the heat of the sun so hen quite naked as with some clothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin: whereas, with a shi+rt on, the air itselfunder the shi+rt, ofold cooler than without it No o out in the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun, beating with such violence as it does in that place, would giveso directly on my head, without a cap or hat on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put on o away

Upon these views I began to consider about putting the few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not reat watch-coats which I had by me, and with such other , or rather, indeed, botching, for I made most piteous work of it However, I made shi+ft to make two or three neaistcoats, which I hoped would serve reat while: as for breeches or drawers, I made but a very sorry shi+ft indeed till afterwards

I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that I killed, Iup, stretched out with sticks in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry and hard that they were fit for little, but others were very useful The first thing I reat cap for my head, with the hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so well, that after I made me a suit of clothes wholly of these skins - that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees, and both loose, for they were rather wanting to keep e that they retchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor However, they were such as I ood shi+ft with, and when I was out, if it happened to rain, the hair ofouterreat deal of tireat want of one, and had a great mind to make one; I had seen thereat heats there, and I felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to beto me, as well for the rains as the heats I took a world of pains with it, and was a great while before I could ht I had hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind: but at last I made one that answered indifferently well: the main difficulty I found was to make it let down I could make it spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was not portable for me any way but just over my head, which would not do However, at last, as I said, I made one to answer, and covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest, and when I had no need of it could close it, and carry it underentirely co myself wholly upon the disposal of His providence This ret the want of conversation I would ask hts, and (as I hope I may say) with even God Himself, by ejaculations, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world?