鲁宾孙飘流记 英文版 Robinson Crusoe
丹尼尔.笛福 Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE ISLAND Page 2
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "O drug!" said I,aloud, "what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me - no, notthe taking off the ground; one of those knives is worth all thisheap; I have no manner of use for thee - e'en remain where thouart, and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worthsaying." However, upon second thoughts I took it away; andwrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I began to think of makinganother raft; but while I was preparing this, I found the skyovercast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an hourit blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently occurred to methat it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the windoffshore; and that it was my business to be gone before the tide offlood began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore atall. Accordingly, I let myself down into the water, and swamacross the channel, which lay between the ship and the sands, andeven that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight of thethings I had about me, and partly the roughness of the water; forthe wind rose very hastily, and before it was quite high water itblew a storm.
But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all mywealth about me, very secure. It blew very hard all night, and inthe morning, when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to beseen! I was a little surprised, but recovered myself with thesatisfactory reflection that I had lost no time, nor abated anydiligence, to get everything out of her that could be useful to me;and that, indeed, there was little left in her that I was able tobring away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of anything outof her, except what might drive on shore from her wreck; as,indeed, divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things wereof small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself againsteither savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any werein the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to dothis, and what kind of dwelling to make - whether I should make mea cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth; and, in short, Iresolved upon both; the manner and description of which, it may notbe improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settlement,because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and Ibelieved it would not be wholesome, and more particularly becausethere was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to find a morehealthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would heproper for me: 1st, health and fresh water, I just now mentioned;2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun; 3rdly, security fromravenous creatures, whether man or beast; 4thly, a view to the sea,that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantagefor my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all myexpectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on theside of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain wassteep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me fromthe top. On the one side of the rock there was a hollow place,worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave but therewas not really any cave or way into the rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolvedto pitch my tent. This plain was not above a hundred yards broad,and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and,at the end of it, descended irregularly every way down into the lowground by the seaside. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill; sothat it was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W.and by S. sun, or thereabouts, which, in those countries, is nearthe setting.
Before I set up my tent I drew a half-circle before the hollowplace, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from therock, and twenty yards in its diameter from its beginning andending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, drivingthem into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, thebiggest end being out of the ground above five feet and a half, andsharpened on the top. The two rows did not stand above six inchesfrom one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, andlaid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle, betweenthese two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes inthe inside, leaning against them, about two feet and a half high,like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that neitherman nor beast could get into it or over it. This cost me a greatdeal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods,bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, but by ashort ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, Ilifted over after me; and so I was completely fenced in andfortified, as I thought, from all the world, and consequently sleptsecure in the night, which otherwise I could not have done; though,as it appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this cautionfrom the enemies that I apprehended danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all myriches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which youhave the account above; and I made a large tent, which to preserveme from the rains that in one part of the year are very violentthere, I made double - one smaller tent within, and one larger tentabove it; and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which Ihad saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought onshore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, andbelonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything thatwould spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, Imade up the entrance, which till now I had left open, and so passedand repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, andbringing all the earth and stones that I dug down out through mytent, I laid them up within my fence, in the nature of a terrace,so that it raised the ground within about a foot and a half; andthus I made me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like acellar to my house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these things werebrought to perfection; and therefore I must go back to some otherthings which took up some of my thoughts. At the same time ithappened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent,and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick,dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that agreat clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I was notso much surprised with the lightning as I was with the thoughtwhich darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself - Oh, mypowder! My very heart sank within me when I thought that, at oneblast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defenceonly, but the providing my food, as I thought, entirely depended.I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had thepowder took fire, I should never have known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm wasover I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, andapplied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, andto keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in the hope that,whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once; and tokeep it so apart that it should not be possible to make one partfire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight; and Ithink my powder, which in all was about two hundred and fortypounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. Asto the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any dangerfrom that; so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, Icalled my kitchen; and the rest I hid up and down in holes amongthe rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefullywhere I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once atleast every day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see ifI could kill anything fit for food; and, as near as I could, toacquaint myself with what the island produced. The first time Iwent out, I presently discovered that there were goats in theisland, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then it wasattended with this misfortune to me - viz. that they were so shy,so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficultthing in the world to come at them; but I was not discouraged atthis, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it soonhappened; for after I had found their haunts a little, I laid waitin this manner for them: I observed if they saw me in the valleys,though they were upon the rocks, they would run away, as in aterrible fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I wasupon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I concludedthat, by the position of their optics, their sight was so directeddownward that they did not readily see objects that were abovethem; so afterwards I took this method - I always climbed the rocksfirst, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat,which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, whichgrieved me heartily; for when the old one fell, the kid stood stockstill by her, till I came and took her up; and not only so, butwhen I carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kidfollowed me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam,and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopesto have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced tokill it and eat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh agreat while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions, my breadespecially, as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary toprovide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn: and what I didfor that, and also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences Imade, I shall give a full account of in its place; but I must nowgive some little account of myself, and of my thoughts aboutliving, which, it may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast awayupon that island without being driven, as is said, by a violentstorm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a greatway, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course ofthe trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider it as adetermination of Heaven, that in this desolate place, and in thisdesolate manner, I should end my life. The tears would runplentifully down my face when I made these reflections; andsometimes I would expostulate with myself why Providence shouldthus completely ruin His creatures, and render them so absolutelymiserable; so without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, thatit could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check thesethoughts, and to reprove me; and particularly one day, walking withmy gun in my hand by the seaside, I was very pensive upon thesubject of my present condition, when reason, as it were,expostulated with me the other way, thus: "Well, you are in adesolate condition, it is true; but, pray remember, where are therest of you? Did not you come, eleven of you in the boat? Whereare the ten? Why were they not saved, and you lost? Why were yousingled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then Ipointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the goodthat is in them, and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for mysubsistence, and what would have been my case if it had nothappened (which was a hundred thousand to one) that the shipfloated from the place where she first struck, and was driven sonear to the shore that I had time to get all these things out ofher; what would have been my case, if I had been forced to havelived in the condition in which I at first came on shore, withoutnecessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them?"Particularly," said I, aloud (though to myself), "what should Ihave done without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools tomake anything, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent,or any manner of covering?" and that now I had all these tosufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself insuch a manner as to live without my gun, when my ammunition wasspent: so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting, without anywant, as long as I lived; for I considered from the beginning how Iwould provide for the accidents that might happen, and for the timethat was to come, even not only after my ammunition should bespent, but even after my health and strength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition beingdestroyed at one blast - I mean my powder being blown up bylightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me,when it lightened and thundered, as I observed just now.
And now being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a sceneof silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the worldbefore, I shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in itsorder. It was by my account the 30th of September, when, in themanner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island;when the sun, being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost overmy head; for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in thelatitude of nine degrees twenty-two minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into mythoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books,and pen and ink, and should even forget the Sabbath days; but toprevent this, I cut with my knife upon a large post, in capitalletters - and making it into a great cross, I set it up on theshore where I first landed - "I came on shore here on the 30thSeptember 1659."
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with myknife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, andevery first day of the month as long again as that long one; andthus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoningof time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the many thingswhich I brought out of the ship, in the several voyages which, asabove mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of less value,but not at all less useful to me, which I omitted setting downbefore; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels inthe captain's, mate's, gunner's and carpenter's keeping; three orfour compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives,charts, and books of navigation, all which I huddled together,whether I might want them or no; also, I found three very goodBibles, which came to me in my cargo from England, and which I hadpacked up among my things; some Portuguese books also; and amongthem two or three Popish prayer-books, and several other books, allwhich I carefully secured. And I must not forget that we had inthe ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I may haveoccasion to say something in its place; for I carried both the catswith me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself,and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my firstcargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothingthat he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up tome; I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do.As I observed before, I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbandedthem to the utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, Ikept things very exact, but after that was gone I could not, for Icould not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things notwithstandingall that I had amassed together; and of these, ink was one; as alsoa spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,pins, and thread; as for linen, I soon learned to want that withoutmuch difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it wasnear a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, orsurrounded my habitation. The piles, or stakes, which were asheavy as I could well lift, were a long time in cutting andpreparing in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing home; so thatI spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one ofthose posts, and a third day in driving it into the ground; forwhich purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at lastbethought myself of one of the iron crows; which, however, though Ifound it, made driving those posts or piles very laborious andtedious work. But what need I have been concerned at thetediousness of anything I had to do, seeing I had time enough to doit in? nor had I any other employment, if that had been over, atleast that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to seekfor food, which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and thecircumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of myaffairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were tocome after me - for I was likely to have but few heirs - as todeliver my thoughts from daily poring over them, and afflicting mymind; and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I beganto comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good againstthe evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case fromworse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, thecomforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:-
Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hopeof recovery.
Good: But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's companywere.
Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all theworld, to be miserable.
Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship's crew, to bespared from death; and He that miraculously saved me from death candeliver me from this condition.
Evil: I am divided from mankind - a solitaire; one banished fromhuman society.
Good: But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place,affording no sustenance.
Evil: I have no clothes to cover me.
Good: But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had clothes, I couldhardly wear them.
Evil: I am without any defence, or means to resist any violence ofman or beast.
Good: But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurtme, as I saw on the coast of Africa; and what if I had beenshipwrecked there?
Evil: I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.
Good: But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to theshore, that I have got out as many necessary things as will eithersupply my wants or enable me to supply myself, even as long as Ilive.
should end my life. The tears would runplentifully down my face when!
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there wasscarce any condition in the world so miserable but there wassomething negative or something positive to be thankful for in it;and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the mostmiserable of all conditions in this world: that we may always findin it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in thedescription of good and evil, on the credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, andgiven over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship - Isay, giving over these things, I begun to apply myself to arrangemy way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under theside of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables:but I might now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wallup against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside; andafter some time (I think it was a year and a half) I raised raftersfrom it, leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it withboughs of trees, and such things as I could get, to keep out therain; which I found at some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale,and into the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe,too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, asthey lay in no order, so they took up all my place; I had no roomto turn myself: so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and workfarther into the earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, whichyielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it: and so when I foundI was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to theright hand, into the rock; and then, turning to the right again,worked quite out, and made me a door to come out on the outside ofmy pale or fortification. This gave me not only egress andregress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, butgave me room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as Ifound I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for withoutthese I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world;I could not write or eat, or do several things, with so muchpleasure without a table: so I went to work. And here I must needsobserve, that as reason is the substance and origin of themathematics, so by stating and squaring everything by reason, andby making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be,in time, master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a toolin my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, andcontrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could havemade it, especially if I had had tools. However, I made abundanceof things, even without tools; and some with no more tools than anadze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before,and that with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, Ihad no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge beforeme, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I brought itto be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It istrue, by this method I could make but one board out of a wholetree; but this I had no remedy for but patience, any more than Ihad for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took me upto make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little worth,and so it was as well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in thefirst place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards thatI brought on my raft from the ship. But when I had wrought outsome boards as above, I made large shelves, of the breadth of afoot and a half, one over another all along one side of my cave, tolay all my tools, nails and ironwork on; and, in a word, toseparate everything at large into their places, that I might comeeasily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hangmy guns and all things that would hang up; so that, had my cavebeen to be seen, it looked like a general magazine of all necessarythings; and had everything so ready at my hand, that it was a greatpleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially tofind my stock of all necessaries so great.
upon me fromthe top. On the one side of the rock there was a hollow place,worn a little way in, like the entrance?
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day'semployment; for, indeed, at first I was in too much hurry, and notonly hurry as to labour, but in too much discomposure of mind; andmy journal would have been full of many dull things; for example, Imust have said thus: "30TH. - After I had got to shore, and escapeddrowning, instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance,having first vomited, with the great quantity of salt water whichhad got into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ranabout the shore wringing my hands and beating my head and face,exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, 'I was undone, undone!'till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on the ground torepose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured."
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, andgot all that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear getting upto the top of a little mountain and looking out to sea, in hopes ofseeing a ship; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail, pleasemyself with the hopes of it, and then after looking steadily, tillI was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like achild, and thus increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and havingsettled my household staff and habitation, made me a table and achair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I began to keep myjournal; of which I shall here give you the copy (though in it willbe told all these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; forhaving no more ink, I was forced to leave it off.